Almost 12,000 key workers are stuck on long term sick leave as the Government’s failure to tackle hospital waiting lists comes back to bite.
A whopping 8,614 nurses, 2,752 police officers and 568 firefighters are currently away from work for long term health reasons, according to the data.
Newcastle NHS Trust was found to be the worst affected across the country with 903 nurses revealed to be long term sick, followed by University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust with 480, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust with 432 and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust with 416.
The Metropolitan Police, which is the biggest force in the country, had 677 officers who are absent as they are on long term sick leave. West Yorkshire Police had 138 officers off and South Yorkshire Police had 134 officers and staff.
The figures for November were uncovered by the Liberal Democrats through a series of Freedom of Information requests to NHS trusts, police forces and fire services. The party pointed to the Conservative Government’s failure to tackle the NHS waiting lists as one of the reasons behind the high levels of sick leave, with the backlog currently sitting at 7.61million.
The latest figures from the ONS show a staggering 2.6 million people are off work due to long-term health conditions. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney called on the Government to properly fund the NHS in next month’s Budget, to cut waiting lists and boost the economy by ensuring people receive good quality care and are able to return to work faster.
She said: “Nurses, firefighters and police officers are the key workers keeping our country running. Yet due to this Conservative Government’s failure to tackle NHS waiting lists, thousands are stuck on long term sick leave. It is unbelievable that despite this, Rishi Sunak is leaving the NHS as stretched as it’s ever been, failing patients and hurting our economic growth at the same time.
“Ministers need to properly fund our health service, tackle waiting lists and give our key workers the good quality care they deserve.”
NHS staff last week accused Rishi Sunak of passing the buck after he blamed striking workers for his failure to deliver his waiting list pledge. The PM pointed the finger at hard-working medics as he finally admitted that he has not met his promise to reduce the number of people waiting for treatment.
Asked about the pledge in an interview with Piers Morgan, Mr Sunak said: "We have not made enough progress." Pressed again on whether he had failed, he admitted: "Yes, we have."
The backlog of patients waiting for treatment has marginally reduced but remains higher than when the PM made the promise in January 2023. In November there were 7.61 million outstanding treatments, compared to 7.21 million last January.
Mr Sunak tried to blame striking staff for the backlog, saying: "We have invested record amounts in the NHS, more doctors, more nurses, more scanners. All these things mean that the NHS is doing more today than it ever has been. But industrial action has had an impact."
The PM also blamed the pandemic, saying: "We can't escape that... When you shut down the country in the NHS for the best part of two years, that has had an impact on everything since then."