Long Covid pressured greater than 2,600 NHS employees to take time without work, figures present
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ore than 2,600 NHS employees in Scotland have been pressured to take time without work on account of lengthy Covid, new figures present.
Freedom of knowledge requests by the Scottish Liberal Democrats revealed at the very least 2,603 docs, nurses and midwives had been recorded as having taken time without work on account of lengthy Covid, some for greater than two years.
The overwhelming majority of absences had been seen in nurses, with 2,414 taking time without work, in comparison with 128 docs and 61 midwives.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde suffered worst, with a complete of 1,298 employees pressured to take depart on account of lengthy Covid, in accordance with the figures.
The longest recorded absence was discovered within the NHS Grampian space, the place one member of employees was off for 957 days.
In NHS Fife, a employee spent 882 days on depart, and one other in NHS Highland was side-lined for 798 days.
The whole determine is more likely to be larger as NHS Forth Valley didn’t present the knowledge, NHS Western Isles was unable to take action, and NHS Lothian offered information for the whole-time equal employees misplaced to lengthy Covid.
Scottish Lib Dem chief Alex Cole-Hamilton stated the information is a “damning verdict of the Scottish Government’s complete lack of care for long Covid victims”, calling on ministers to extend funding to assist these with the situation.
“Long Covid is an enormously debilitating condition which disrupts and devastates lives,” he stated.
“This nationalist Government’s response has been so poor that many Scots would be better off moving to England where more robust care pathways are available.
“Our NHS is already at boiling point and if this lacklustre approach from the SNP and Greens continues, we will see even more staff absences, even more pressure on services.
“Nurses and other long Covid sufferers cannot afford to be put on hold any longer without solutions.
“These sky-high absences must propel the Government into action.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats are calling on Humza Yousaf to improve funding for long Covid.
“We need to see dedicated long Covid clinics set up across the country and Scotland-wide access to physiotherapy and multi-disciplinary rehab. Otherwise, nurses and their patients will pay the price.”
The Scottish Government allotted £3 million from its £10 million lengthy Covid assist fund for the final monetary yr, however no additional allocations have but been introduced.
NHS Grampian stated it couldn’t touch upon particular person circumstances, however that it follows nationally set absence guidelines.
A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde stated its workforce – totalling round 41,000 individuals – accounts for round one quarter of NHS employees in Scotland, including: “The health and wellbeing of our staff is of paramount importance to us and throughout the pandemic we introduced a number of new interventions to support staff and managers in terms of absence, health and wellbeing, and new guidance was developed to assist in managing the previously unknown condition of long Covid.
“Through HR and occupational health teams we have expanded resources to focus on supporting those with Covid and long Covid, while introducing specific peer support as part of our wider mental health and wellbeing action plan.”
A Scottish Government spokesman stated: “We recognise the significant impact long Covid can have on the health and wellbeing of those most severely affected and assessment and support is being provided across Scotland.
“We are making available £3 million from our £10 million long Covid support fund over this financial year to support NHS boards to increase the capacity of existing services, develop these into more clearly defined local pathways and provide a more co-ordinated experience.
“This is in addition to what our healthcare system – supported by record funding of more than £19 billion – is already delivering in caring for people with long Covid across our full range of NHS services.
“All NHS staff are fully supported in accordance with the Once for Scotland attendance policy where health impacts their ability to be at work.”
The Government stated that for the fortnight ending May 23 2023, a day by day common of 365 NHS employees had been absent on account of Covid-related sickness – 0.20% of the full workforce.