New research has revealed that frontline NHS hospitals are losing an estimated £290 million a year due to staff being absent from work with muscle and joint injuries – with lack of access to physiotherapy services a key factor.
More than 62% of staff working in Acute Hospital Trusts take sick leave every year, averaging 20.5 days absence each, costing millions and having a direct impact on the provision of services for patient care. Research shows that figure rises to 24 days per head for those suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) meaning that every hospital Trust across the country loses an average of almost 13,000 staff days per year due to staff having conditions such as bad backs, sore necks or stiff joints.
The research, carried out by Physio Med, has also revealed that Trusts which do offer staff faster access to physiotherapy record significantly reduced sickness absence rates, with those suffering from MSDs reducing their time off two and a half days on average. This equates to a Trust with 500 staff absent due to MSDs saving 1,250 days or £115,000 a year by offering faster access to physiotherapy.
The research was carried out via a Freedom of Information request to NHS Trusts across England. The responses from 103 acute trusts showed that 62% of NHS Trust staff had taken sick leave in the year to April 2015, with 14% of all absence due to MSDs – which equates to more than three million lost days every year across the NHS in England.
Phil Clayton, managing director of Physio Med, which provides occupational physiotherapy to a number of NHS Trusts, said: “Staff within the NHS provide vital services to the public. Many of the roles are physically demanding and therefore the prevalence of muscular and joint injuries is, understandably, high. But when these employees are absent from work it can have a severe knock-on effect on the delivery of NHS services to the public.
“The research we have carried out among Trusts across the country demonstrates that the length of absence due to MSDs is significantly higher than other causes and is costing the NHS £290 million a year – a figure that doesn’t even take into account the cost of cancelled and delayed NHS services.
“Interestingly, the Trusts that we work with have lower overall sickness absence rates and the length of absence due to MSDs is much lower at just 21.5 days, as opposed to 24 days in other Trusts. This alone could save the NHS about £30million a year in lost working days.”
The research reinforces the findings of the Chartered Society for Physiotherapy (CSP) Fit Enough for Patients? report in 2013, which identified that more than a third of Trusts did not have a health and wellbeing strategy in place, and nearly one in five trusts did not offer staff rapid access to physiotherapy, despite being recommended to do so by the 2009 report, the Boorman Review.
