Occupational health doctor Emma McNicol is currently undertaking Specialty Training in Occupational Medicine in NHS Lanarkshire. The following study was undertaken as part of her Master’s degree, at the University of Manchester.
This was a retrospective/historical cohort study, which used secondary data collected by Occupational Health, NHS Lanarkshire, during the pandemic. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to this data, which was then anonymised by an occupational health consultant, prior to analysis.
Applications to access this previously collected data by NHS Lanarkshire (for their own purposes) were made to the NHS Lanarkshire Caldicott Guardian, University Research Ethics Committee and NHS Lanarkshire research and development department, and approval was granted.
During the pandemic, a large number of healthcare workers were absent due to Covid-19 infection. However, there was little evidence available regarding the factors that were associated with a longer sickness absence duration e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, job category or workplace, clinical symptoms and pre-existing underlying health conditions.
This had implications, not only for individual staff member’s well-being and the need to ensure the protection of more vulnerable healthcare workers, but also for the ability to maintain adequate service provision during the pandemic and onwards.
By understanding the staff member characteristics that were associated with taking longer to return to work during the pandemic, this would help identify and suggest the most effective supportive measures, such as appropriate adjustments, including the possibility of early redeployment to more suitable areas, in staff who take longer to return to work. It would also help the service collect appropriate data to be able to make these decisions for further epidemics or pandemics.
Consequently, a study was undertaken of NHS Lanarkshire staff, which aimed to understand the relationship between individual, occupational and clinical characteristics, and the duration of sick leave, following Covid-19 infection in healthcare workers.
As part of the study results, we found that the median duration of days taken to return to work, after Covid-19 infection, was 20 days. The strongest predictors for a longer time taken to return to work were: increasing age, reporting six or more symptoms, reporting fever, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, and particularly fatigue, and reporting a higher degree of co-morbidity.
As a result of these findings, we have been able to make some recommendations, that could help us to deal with future pandemics:
1) Possible timeframes for a return to work, following Covid-19, for staff members with particular characteristics, thus enabling managers to arrange appropriate cover
2) That an extended and tailored phased return/altered hours approach should be considered for those who have been absent for extended periods
3) That workplace adaptations, or early redeployment to more suitable areas appropriate for the staff member’s health needs and functional capacity following Covid-19, should be considered.
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me, Emma McNicol, ST6 in occupational medicine Emma.McNicol@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk
