Sickness absence in the NHS: January to March 2020

In response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, Welsh Government is collecting additional and more timely data on sickness absence. This has not been included here as this release only covers the period up to the quarter ending 31 March 2020 (i.e. in the early days of the pandemic). This additional data is NHS Wales management information; it is not collected on the same basis as that published in this quarterly release. Information on coronavirus and NHS activity and capacity is published in a weekly update.

Main points

• Sickness absence was 6.0%, up 0.4 percentage points from the same period in 2019.
• The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust had the highest sickness absence, 7.1%.
• Health Education and Improvement Wales Special Health Authority had the lowest sickness absence, 2.8%.
• The staff group with the highest sickness absence was the Healthcare Assistants and other support workers staff group, 8.0%.
• The staff group with the lowest sickness absence was the Medical and Dental staff group, 2.3%.