Few sick days for health staff

More than half of Canterbury’s primary health professionals are turning up to work sick to avoid letting their colleagues and patients down, a survey has found.

The Pegasus Health survey of GPs, community pharmacists and practice nurses has raised concerns about low levels of self-care in the sector.

It found 57.5 per cent of respondents had turned up to work sick ‘‘when they felt they should not have’’, and 42 per cent had taken no sick leave in the previous year.

Most (78 per cent) said it was to avoid letting colleagues down, while 38.8 per cent said they were ‘‘too busy to take time off work’’, and 27 per cent said they did not want to let their patients down.

A lack of locum cover was highlighted as a major obstacle for health professionals to be able to take sick and annual leave.

The regional snapshot of healthcare workers reflected a national trend, Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) medical director Richard Medlicott said.

A survey of RNZCGP members last year found 22 per cent of GPs felt burnt out.

The issue raised the risk of compromised patient care, despite an ethical and professional duty not to work ‘‘while impaired’’, Medlicott said.

A doctor could be removed for refusing to seek help in extreme cases.

For minor viral illnesses, it was not realistic for GPs to expect locum cover at short notice and most would manage the situation, Medlicott said.

‘‘Provided you are using lots of hand sanitiser and coughing into your arm rather than into the air, then you’re probably OK but for more serious illnesses we would be concerned.’’

Of the three professions in the Canterbury survey, 64 per cent of community pharmacists reported working while sick, while 53 per cent of GPs and 37 per cent of nurses said they worked while sick.

Community pharmacists were also less likely to take holidays, with 8 per cent reporting they had taken no leave in the previous year.

About 0.8 per cent of GPs and 7 per cent of practice nurses said they had taken no leave in the past 12 months.

Christchurch GP Caroline Christie, one of the survey’s authors, said the number of health professionals continuing to work while sick was very concerning, but not surprising due to staff shortages in the region.

‘‘Locum cover has been an issue for many years and this study just supports that.’’

Other GPs would pick up the work of a sick colleague at larger practices, but smaller practices did not have that option.

Pegasus Health was developing an app to help health professionals find locums more easily.

The blurring of professional boundaries was also addressed in the survey, with just over 60 per cent of respondents saying they ‘‘would try not to’’ give medical advice to family and friends, ‘‘but sometimes found it hard not to’’.

One in five reported giving advice for ‘‘trivial’’ conditions, on a weekend or public holiday, or in the absence or cost of medical care.

Just over 65 per cent used medications or supplies from their work for personal use and 28 per cent had prescribed medications for friends and family.

Three quarters of pharmacists said they felt uncomfortable or ‘‘very uncomfortable’’ when they received a script for a drug that could potentially be abused that was intended for use by the prescriber or the prescriber’s immediate family.