Sick leave applications for staff in Gauteng state hospitals have risen "alarmingly"‚ from R161m paid to 3‚244 employees in 2014 to R312m paid to 5‚882 employees last year. Business Day reports that his was revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa in a written reply to questions in the Gauteng legislature.
Ramokgopa said: "Short temporary incapacity applications are the highest applications applied for‚ but the long temporary incapacity leave applications constituted the highest amount paid during the management of incapacity leave in 2017." There were 442 cases of long-term incapacity in 2017‚ for which R15.3m was paid out‚ compared to 411 cases which cost R1.2m in 2014.
Ramokgopa said that nurses were the source of most sick leave applications.
The report quotes Jack Bloom‚ the Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow MEC for health in the Gauteng provincial legislature, as saying: "I am concerned by the unexplained jump in sick leave by hospital staff. Are staff experiencing increased illness‚ or is the sick leave system being abused because of poor management? An investigation is needed into the sick leave increase‚ particularly with nurses‚ which could be due to burnout from working in poor conditions or picking up infections from patients."
Better management of sick leave was needed to prevent abuses and fix the causes of avoidable illness‚ he said.
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2018-04-23-gwen-ramokgopa-reveals-alarming-increase-in-sick-leave-applications-from-nurses/"]Business Day report[/link]
Jack Bloom statement
www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/hospital-sick-leave-jumps-in-gauteng–jack-bloom