Under-pressure nurses are going off sick at an alarming rate in Fife.
Concern has been expressed at the level of absence among nurses and support staff caring for the elderly at community hospitals, including Cameron in Windygates and Randolph Wemyss in Buckhaven.
Over the last 16 months sickness rates have remained stubbornly high at 9.3%, more than double the 4% rate deemed acceptable by the Scottish Government.
The situation has been partly blamed on the acute sector’s policy of moving patients into alternative care as quickly as possible in a bid to cut the region’s soaring delayed discharge rates.
Staff sickness is also said to be partly to blame for a £164,000 overspend in Fife’s continuing care wards.
An action plan is now in place to tackle the problem and it is hoped improvements will be seen soon.
In a report to the last meeting of the Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth Community Health Partnership (CHP), general manager Mary Porter said it was recognised that the level of absence was not acceptable from a patient, staff or organisational perspective. She added that absence was split fairly evenly between nurses and support workers.
The wards in question provide services to frail elderly people with complex needs and have been working at maximum capacity.
Fife councillor Andrew Rodger, who sits on the CHP, said the pressure experienced by nurses in community hospitals was a knock-on effect of the strained acute sector.
“Because the acute sector is so busy, there is a tendency to move patients on a bit more quickly,” he said. “It puts the community setting under pressure and what we are seeing in Fife is sickness at double the rate it should be for 16 months because of a situation at the Victoria in Kirkcaldy.”
He added: “We really need to keep an eye on sickness in the health service in Fife when it’s getting as high as that.
“I know action is being taken but we need to get behind the figures to find out how nurses are feeling about things.
“Community hospitals are working at capacity and when you’re working at capacity, you tend to discharge early or not admit.”