The effects of COVID-19 on sickness of medical staff across departments: A single centre experience.

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 presents a risk to healthcare workers, incurring harm to staff physical and mental wellbeing and difficulties in provision of care and service planning.
METHODOLOGY: Doctors' anonymised demographic and staff sickness data were collected between 16 March and 26 April 2020, corresponding with the single centre's greatest COVID-19 caseload.
FINDINGS: 128 (39%) of doctors experienced at least one sickness episode. Episodes totalled 1,240 days, equating to a sickness absence rate of 9.1%. Rates varied between departments and grades. High levels of sickness were seen in medicine and both adult and paediatric emergency departments with the lowest levels seen in intensive care. DISCUSSION: COVID-19 caused a burden of sickness on the medical workforce which must be accounted for in future workforce planning. The disparity in sickness rates across departments is likely to be multi-factorial. Further study is needed to investigate these factors to protect healthcare staff and their patients. © Royal College of Physicians 2021. All rights reserved.