Thousands of NHS workers with long Covid are missing out on pay due to a change in sickness policy, a BBC Panorama investigation suggests.
Special paid leave for NHS England staff suffering from Covid-related sickness ended in July 2022, meaning medical staff reverted to usual contractual sick pay arrangements. This meant that any employee directly employed by an NHS Trust could earn full pay, however long they were off work.
From August 2022, a formal notice period to transition staff back to their usual contractual agreements began, with any staff taking sickness absence from 1 September – regardless of reason – now entitled to their usual level of sick pay.
The Department of Health and Social Care initially brought in temporary non-contractual sick leave at the start of the pandemic, to ensure staff received full pay should they be advised to self-isolate or become ill with Covid.
Some staff were eligible for a six-month transition period from the enhanced Covid payment, and this is due to end soon. This means that those staff who need to take sick days due to symptoms of long Covid will not receive any additional support.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 2.1 million people of working age suffer from long Covid, where they experience long-term health symptoms following an initial Covid infection.
People suffering from long Covid are often unable to work due to high levels of fatigue, difficulty concentrating or shortness of breath. A survey by jobsite Indeed last November found that 78% of people with long Covid had been forced to stop, pause, reduce or change their work.
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who chairs a cross-party group looking into the handling of the pandemic, told Panorama that other countries were providing better financial support to those impacted by long Covid.
“We are falling behind our peers in our recognition of this as a real disease that needs proper recognition and compensation,” she said.
The British Medical Association is currently undertaking a survey of doctors and healthcare workers in the UK into the impact of post-Covid complications, and how to improve support.
The BMA has called for an “appropriate compensation scheme” for doctors, saying it is “hugely concerned” about the welfare of doctors and other healthcare workers suffering from long Covid.
Kirstie Beattie, employment solicitor at WorkNest, pointed to a tribunal ruling in June 2022 which classed long Covid as a disability.
“Consequently, organisations must understand how to support employees with long Covid,” she said. “They can support employees by making reasonable adjustments – such as offering additional rest breaks, changing working hours and patterns or transferring the employee into a suitable alternative post. The employee should also be referred to an occupational health professional.”
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