Changing patterns of sickness absence among healthcare workers in England during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective

To explore impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on patterns of sickness absence among staff employed by the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

Methods

We analysed prospectively collected, pseudonymised data on 959,356 employees who were continuously employed by NHS trusts during 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2020, comparing the frequency of new sickness absence in 2020 with that at corresponding times in 2019.

Results

After exclusion of episodes directly related to COVID-19, the overall incidence of sickness absence during the initial 10 weeks of the pandemic (March-May 2020) was more than 20% lower than in corresponding weeks of 2019, but trends for specific categories of illness varied. Marked increases were observed for asthma (122%), infectious diseases (283%) and mental illness (42.3%), while reductions were apparent for gastrointestinal problems (48.4%), genitourinary/gynaecological disorders (33.8%), eye problems (42.7%), injury and fracture (27.7%), back problems (19.6%), other musculoskeletal disorders (29.3%), disorders of ear, nose and throat (32.7%), cough/flu (24.5%) and cancer (24.1%). A doubling of new absences for pregnancy-related disorders during 18 May to 19 July of 2020 was limited to women with earlier COVID-19 sickness absence.

Conclusions

Various factors will have contributed to the large and divergent changes that were observed. The findings add to concerns regarding delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancers, and support a need to plan for a large backlog of treatment for many other diseases. Further research should explore the rise in absence for pregnancy-related disorders among women with earlier COVID-19 sickness absence.

1. What is already known about this subject?

Historically, rates of sickness absence among the NHS workforce in England have been relatively high but stable. Reports of a marked increase during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic have not distinguished between different categories of underlying illness.

2. What are the new findings?

During the first wave of COVID-19, incidence of sickness-absence changed markedly when compared to the previous year, with major increases for some categories of illness, and large declines for many others, including cancer.

3. How might this impact on policy or clinical practice in the foreseeable future?

The findings support a need to plan for effects from delayed diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and to manage a large backlog of treatment for many other diseases.