A SENIOR MSP has hit out at ambulance bosses after they moved to create a dedicated phone line for staff to call in sick.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has historically had higher levels of absence compared to other NHS departments, and has recorded the worst figures of all 22 of Scotland's health boards in two of the last three years.

Bosses have moved to set up a single phone line for workers from across the country to call if they are unwell, in a bid to reduce sickness rates.

However Jackson Carlaw, Tory deputy leader in Holyrood and his party's health spokesman, warned that it could have the reverse effect and encourage skivers.

"The sickness absence levels within the ambulance service have been unacceptably high for some time now," he said. "But creating a faceless department to channel sickness calls is hardly going to improve that. If anything, that will imbue people tempted to pull a sickie if they don't have to confront their line manager.

"When people are genuinely ill no-one objects to them taking the day off. But people in Scotland will look at absence levels in the ambulance service knowing fine well they wouldn't be tolerated in their workplace.

"The Scottish Government also must recognise the toll this absence rate is having on the frontline."

Last year, the ambulance service reported a sickness absence rate of more than six per cent, with only the State Hospital, which houses mentally ill prisoners, recording a higher figure. Ambulance workers recorded sickness rates of 6.5 per cent in 2012/13 and 6.29 in the previous year, coming bottom of health board league tables on both occasions. Some health boards report figures of around 2.5 per cent, while a Scottish Government target of four per cent has been in force since 2009.

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Ambulance crews undertake a very physically demanding job which involves significant moving and handling of patients, often in the most difficult and challenging situations.

"The Service employs a range of measures that are rigorously applied to manage sickness absence, including fast track physiotherapy and employee counselling services. A single point of contact has been established for staff reporting absence that gives a more consistent analysis of the reasons for absence and will improve the current rates.

"This approach provides the most appropriate support for staff to return to work and quickly informs the remedial actions required to optimise shift cover. It is a proven system that has reduced absence rates elsewhere in the NHS."