NHS staff sickness creating ‘doom loop of delays’ says Anas Sarwar

Sickness absence among NHS staff is creating a "doom loop of delays", Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said. 

Raising the matter at FMQs on Thursday, Sarwar revealed 15.3 million working hours had been lost due to NHS staff sickness in the last year – the equivalent of 640,000 days.

First Minister John Swinney said he "can't deny" there were challenges in the NHS, but he pointed to increases in the number of both inpatients and outpatients being seen, and increased capacity in planned care.

The national target for NHS health boards is a staff absence rate of four per cent or less. In the last financial year, ending in March, NHS Scotland’s sickness absence rate was 6.21 per cent – the highest on record.

Sarwar warned staff were stuck on NHS waiting lists themselves which was exacerbating pressures on the service further. 

He raised the case of Karen Campbell, a dental nurse forced to quit her role as she has been waiting years for prolapse and hip surgery.

The Scottish Labour leader said: “Karen just wanted to get back to the job she loves, but couldn’t due to her untreated condition.” 

He added: “Under this SNP government, even our NHS staff can’t get the treatment they need on time so they can get back to work and treat others.

“What this has created is a doom loop of delays where everyone loses out.”

Swinney expressed sympathy for Campbell, adding employees and others should be “treated timeously”.

He said there were “legitimate challenges that are being wrestled with” within the NHS, adding increased demand and financial constraints were making this harder. He accused the Labour UK Government of “continued” austerity.

Swinney said: “The problem here is the perpetuation of austerity. And Mr Sarwar told me during the election campaign there would be no austerity under Labour.

“Those were his words, ‘no austerity under Labour’ and we’re getting austerity under Labour. My message to Mr Sarwar is if he wants to help the situation, he should say to his UK masters, end the austerity.”

Earlier at FMQs, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross raised concerns about the amount of young people not in work, education or training.

He said 52,700 16-24 year olds are currently economically inactive and not in education, and the young person’s guarantee was "yet another broken promise".

Swinney pointed to a "significant fall" in economic activity overall in recent statistics.