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NHS staff sickness rate highest for 10 years as levels rise in 18 Scottish health boards
Scotland's struggling NHS is facing even more pressure after it emerged sickness rates among staff have reached the highest level for ten years.
A new report revealed the rate for 2024-25 was 6.4 per cent – up from 6.2 per cent the previous year.
The NHS Education for Scotland report showed that was 'the highest rate in the past ten years'.
It comes after the Scottish Tories claimed patients are 'dying needlessly' as A&E departments see waiting times worsening amid fears of a winter disaster.
The latest worrying sickness rates come despite the fact that in 2009 the Scottish Government set a national target which aimed to reduce the NHS staff absence rate to 4 per cent.
However, new figures for the year to the end of March showed that sickness absence rates decreased in four NHS boards and increased in 18.
At the Scottish Ambulance Service, the sickness absence rate increased by 0.8 per cent to 9.7 per cent – the highest sickness absence rate of any health board.
The data showed the health service employed 161,333.8 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff – up 0.1 per cent on the previous year.
That included 67,714.6 WTE nursing and midwifery staff, with the number of absences amongst this group falling by 23.1 per cent to 2,601.2 WTE posts.
As well as that, the figures detailed a reduction in spending on bank and agency staff. Spending on agency medical and dental staff dropped by 16.7 per cent to £108million.
The bill for agency and bank nursing staff fell for the first time, to £410million, with this linked to falling spending on agency workers.
The report said: 'After more than doubling in a three-year period, total nursing bank and agency expenditure decreased during the past year.'
A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'Our aim is to limit all agency use as much as possible.'
It comes as Public Health Scotland revealed more than a third of patients were not seen within the four-hour target last week in Scotland's A&E departments.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the figures were 'nothing short of disgraceful'.
He said: 'How many more families need to lose loved ones before John Swinney and Neil Gray finally come up with a plan to address this crisis?'
The proportion of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours fell from 66.9 to 64.9 per cent last week, even though attendances were fractionally down.
Mr Gray said: 'I know that some people are still waiting too long for treatment, and I am determined to drive improvement.'
Other figures showed a 3.2 per cent increase in cancer deaths over the past decade, with lung cancer was the most common killer.
