NHS staff sickness absence rate rises to highest level in ten years

Sickness absence rates in NHS Scotland have reached the highest level for ten years, a new report has revealed

Figures showed that sickness absence rate for NHS Scotland for 2024-25 was 6.4% – up from 6.2% the previous year.

A new NHS Education for Scotland report showed that it was “the highest rate during the past ten years”.

It comes after the Scottish Government set a national standard, requiring health boards to achieve a sickness absence rate of 4% from the end of March 2009.

However, new figures for the year to the end of March 2025 showed that sickness absence rates decreased in four NHS boards and increased in 18.

At the Scottish Ambulance Service, the sickness absence rate increased by 0.8 percentage points, to stand at 9.7% – with this the highest sickness absence rate of any health board.

The data was released as part of a new report on NHS the health service employed 161,333.8 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff as of March 21 2025 – up by 0.1% from the previous year.

That includes 67,714.6 WTE nursing and midwifery staff, with the number of absences amongst this group having fallen by almost a quarter (23.1%) over the year to a total of 2,601.2 WTE posts.

As well as that, the figures detailed a reduction in spending on bank and agency staff by the NHS.

Spending on agency medical and dental staff dropped by 16.7% over the year to £108 million, the data showed.

The overall bill for agency and bank nursing staff fell for the first time, to £410 million, with this linked to falling spending on agency workers.

The cost of agency agency nurses and midwifes was down by almost two thirds (62.5%) to £56.7 million for 2024-25.

The cost of bank staff – who are NHS employees, unlike agency workers who are employed by private companies – increased by 4.3% to £353.4 million.

However, the report said: “After more than doubling in a three-year period, total nursing bank and agency expenditure decreased during the past year.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “NHS Scotland has made clear progress in reducing reliance on medical agency workers, with expenditure down 16.7% in the past year.

“Across combined medical, nursing and midwifery agency use, we have seen a reduction of more than £100 million.”

The spokesperson added: “While the use of temporary staff will always be needed in NHS Scotland, our aim is to limit all agency use as much as possible, with more shifts being filled either by substantive staff or through NHS Board staff banks.”