The review, compiled by Steve Boorman, chief medical adviser at Royal Mail and published this morning, shows wellbeing in the NHS is ‘patchy' and advises the organisation to put staff health at the heart of its operation in order to improve employees' working lives and provide better outcomes for patients.
According to research of 11,000 NHS staff, the average employee takes 10.7 days off work every year due to illness and this is more than 25% higher than average days lost per private-sector employee - currently 6.4 days.
In addition almost one in 10 NHS employees admit they have come to work when they felt they were ill enough to stay at home - this issue of presenteeism is especially prevalent among nurses and midwives.
The review advised a national minimum standard of occupational health across the NHS, a cultural transformation to promote health and wellbeing ‘from board to ward' level, a national senior ‘ownership' of health and wellbeing and improved staff services including early intervention, counselling support, health checks, anti-smoking advice and healthy eating tips.
Speaking at the launch of the review, Boorman said: "NHS employers will be able to see a real return on investment from better wellbeing for staff." But he added: "It is not so much about new money and new investment going in, but taking existing management and making it more consistent. It is about the NHS being more proactive than reactive.
"The NHS advises prevention ideas to its patients and this ethos should extend to the public-sector staff."
Michelle Mahdon, health and wellbeing programme leader at The Work Foundation said: "We very much welcome the interim report and its recommendations. The level of ‘presenteeism' in different parts of the NHS, identified through the report, is an area of concern and deserves further study as, together with levels of absenteeism, presenteeism could significantly affect labour productivity in the NHS.
"The report makes a compelling case for change and should leave the NHS and Government in no doubt as to the need to act now and, crucially, how to act."
