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."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article