UK: Over 45,000 NHS staff call in sick each day

Over 45,000 NHS staff call in sick every day, which is lowering standards of patient care, according to the first national NHS Health and Wellbeing Review into staff habits.
By Andy Bloxham
19 Aug 2009

Excerpt:
"But I think they also reflect a light on a problem that is society-wide, which is very bad public health outcomes in our country, whether it is smoking, diet, weight, alcohol, also the issue of sexually transmitted diseases, we have very bad public health outcomes in Britain."

He added: "We need to have an approach that says of course the NHS is absolutely vital in the nation's health, but we do need to protect those public health budgets, and make sure we are making progress on things like smoking, diet and obesity, all the things that will put pressure on the NHS itself in the future." the rest