Private nurses to check up on sick NHS staff

Derby Hospitals NHS Trust is planning to tackle sickness absence by getting privately contracted nurses to telephone sick staff on their first day of absence to offer advice.

It is thought to be one of the first times that an NHS trust has used nurses to deal with sickness absence.

The trust, which has a £15m deficit and employs about 7,000 people, plans to cut the cost of agency staff covering sickness absence – estimated at an average 12 days per employee a year.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Tony Riley, HR director at Derby Hospitals NHS Trust, said it was talking to potential contractors about running the scheme.

“Most of [the nurses’] work will be to offer immediate, timely, medical and primary care advice, spending quality time with people to get them back to work quickly,” he said. “It would start from the first day of absence because the earlier the intervention, the more likely a quicker return.”