NHS staff - 50% higher rate of sickies

[Timster]

I'm sorry but that last sentence - that is, the last 16 words of it - is complete and utter nonsense!! What is so frustrating is people throwing out these sorts of comments without any evidence - in this case not even anecdotal - to back it up!

[Keef]

Timster, I'm on the same side as you in this, but I think we have to admit that there are people who do take the absolute p!ss. It's because of these people that everyone else gets tarred with thirs brush, but we can't go claiming that there are no bad apples, because frankly, there are.

[LuLu Too]

No one has claimed that there are "no bad apples" employed in either the NHS or the Public Sector in general. I have certainly raised the issue of poor performance and also acknowledged that some sickness absence will be less than honest. But this is true across all sectors of employment.

However for SteveT to state that there are individuals employed by the NHS who would be unemployable elsewhere is frankly insulting to the NHS/Public Sector.

I am spending today interviewing candidates for a relatively high grade position. All of them will be educated to Doctorate level. I very much doubt they would be "unemployable" elsewhere. In fact they would vastly increase their earning potential by not working in the Public Sector.

We are priviledged to have such people willing to devote their careers to the NHS.

[Keef]

Well I've worked with people with GCSEs in an office, who probably would struggle elsewhere.

[Keef]

That may have come across a bit wrong. I'm NOT saying people with GCSEs are unemployable, it was just a response to;

I am spending today interviewing candidates for a relatively high grade position. All of them will be educated to Doctorate level. I very much doubt they would be "unemployable" elsewhere.

As I'm not really sure that that paints a particularly broad picture, any more than Steve's somewhat sweeping statement did.

[Timster]

As LuLu Too says, it wasn't the assertion there are some bad apples in the NHS I was objecting too, it was the suggestion that the NHS provides a career for people who would be unemployable anywhere else. Every workplace has its share of incompetent and lazy staff, and I'm sure we've all worked with people whose ability to hold down any job is a mystery. I don't agree with SteveT's claim that the NHS provides an easy ride for these people or can be distinguished from any other employer - private or public sector - in this respect.

[david_carnell]

I agree timster.

I have worked in probably a dozen different jobs in a mixture of industries in both private and public sectors. There has been a constant - in every one there has been at least one lazy or useless member of staff. And when there wasn't it was probably me.

The NHS is far from unique in this respect.

I often wondered how they functioned in society let alone at work.

[SteveT]

Timster wrote:-

I'm sorry but that last sentence - that is, the last 16 words of it - is complete and utter nonsense!! What is so frustrating is people throwing out these sorts of comments without any evidence - in this case not even anecdotal - to back it up!

What more evidence could you possibly need than to go and look in any hospital anywhere in the land and you will see them for yourself Timster, not everyone who gets paid by the NHS, works for them.

Anecdotal evidence might come from the twenty five years I have travelled to almost every major ITU in the land from Cornwall to Edinburgh and the Isle of Wight to Aberytswyth.

My ex-wife is a Consultant and too many of whom she worked with neglected their NHS patients, in favour of the cash from the private sector.

How much anecdotal evidence do you need Timster?

I am sure AnnaJ and Bignumber5 have far more evidence of it than myself, being full-time employees in the industry.

[Timster]

I had thought this thread was dead but since I've been directly challenged. The point, as I think subsequent posts made clear, is that you have no evidence to suggest that absenteeism in the NHS (where it undoubtedly is a problem to some extent)is any worse than with any other employer. Your anecdotal evidence - which still seems very vague and non-specific - only demonstrates your experience of the NHS. I am sure you could find someone who has visited every council office or call centre or insurance company in the land to say they are all full of lazy people who couldn't get a job anywhere else. Oh, and my wife also works full time for the NHS, for what that's worth.

Your point about consultants neglecting NHS patients is, with respect, a completely different issue and I don't see how it is relevant to this thread. It is also a very serious accusation which again you have thrown out there without much evidence to back it up.

[SteveT]

Your wife in all her time served in the nhs has never noticed the amount of hugely obese personell who seem to gravitate towards the nhs then Timster.

I wonder if they are employable by any other company?

[LuLu Too]

SteveT Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Your wife in all her time served in the nhs has

> never noticed the amount of hugely obese personell

> who seem to gravitate towards the nhs then

> Timster.

> I wonder if they are employable by any other

> company?

??

I don't understand this post.

[Timster]

There is nothing to understand about it LuLu Too, it's just nasty and offensive.

I don't want to take part in the debate any more if it's sunk to this sort of level.

[SeanMacGabhann]

the problem of some people's contributions to the forum in a nutshell

Timster you've only just recently started posting regularly and they are Good Posts so don't give up so easily. Please

[The Chair]

Previous message deleted as the gratuitous name-calling was in no way suited to the ethos or raison d'etre of the Drawing Room.

More generally, The Chair has an extremely low tolerance for any message which purports to be some form of apology or explanation, but resorts to phrases like "I was only joking" or "It's just my sense of humour", or anything else along similar lines.

[Alan Dale]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We can all delete the content of our own posts -

> although the empty box and the "." remain as a

> ghostly reminder of opinions we regretted

> expressing...

>

> Just use the 'Edit Post' link and drop in a full

> stop.

>

> I should add that it ruins your reputation - Alan

> Dale did it once a year after he pushed

> buy-to-lets with a passion of a Camberwell candy

> man. As the credit crunch crumbled our dreams to

> dust he went back months 'editing' to give

> 'plausible' deniability that he'd promoted

> anything of the sort.

>

> It wasn't 'plausible' at all. Never recovered poor

> chap, attracted the attentions of *Bob*

Au contraire mon frere.

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