Responding to the latest NHS England Workforce and Sickness absence data, RCN Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said:
"Today's figures show rates of sickness amongst nursing staff remain stubbornly high and are well above pre-pandemic levels. Although the overall sickness rate has trended down slightly since December 2022, there are still far too many days lost due to nursing staff being off sick.
"This is yet more evidence of the nursing workforce crisis – the UK government needs to take a serious look at what this is telling them. There is unrelenting pressure on nursing staff, a workforce with record vacancies is further depleted by high sickness and a record 7.47m people on a waiting list. The result is patients receiving a lower standard of care and nursing staff being left burnt out and overstretched, with thousands more leaving the profession.
"The NHS workforce plan has lofty ambitions but lacks details, with nursing staff needing help now."
Ends
Notes to Editors
The latest NHS England sickness absence rates data published today showed that the overall sickness absence rate for nurses and health visitors was 5.3%. This is 22% higher than the last comparable month prior to the pandemic (4.3% in March 2019). This also equates to a 41% increase in the full time equivalent days lost due to sickness absence between March 2023 and March 2019 (March 2023 – 575,177, March 2019 – 408,553).
