Across the NHS, health data is being harnessed to valuable effect, enabling more effective, efficient and equitable care across all levels of the system. Yet there is a rich health dataset that is not being employed that can yield multiple benefits – sickness absence rate data. In order to drive better patient care and outcomes and a more effective health service, we need to provide the best support possible to those delivering and enabling care – NHS employees.

Looking after NHS caregivers and operational teams is vital to supporting their individual wellbeing. Doing so also brings wider benefits, helping to ensure that patients receive timely care through increased capacity and enabling the NHS to function more efficiently and cost-effectively. 

A rich data set

Our recent analysis looking at trends in sickness absence in the NHS revealed that over 3 million days are lost per year to this cause, over one quarter of which were due to mental ill health and 4.2% due to back pain alone. It also revealed vast differences, with the number of days of sickness absence in one area varying between 21,879 and 2,241 days per month between different Trusts. 

This rich data set and analysis demonstrate the types of conditions, the length of absences, breaks down the departments and roles with the highest rates – from doctors and nurses to property and estates – allows for the identification of system issues and the quantification of the costs of long-term sickness absence to the NHS. With this information revealed, targeted, effective early intervention can be provided to staff by the NHS as an employer without the need for staff to join waiting lists for treatment, helping them to improve their health and wellbeing and reduce sickness absence rates and the need for costly agency staff.

For example, evidence-based digital therapeutics for mental health and pain management provided to staff by NHS occupational health teams, HR and workforce managers provide rapid support, and help in the drive towards prevention. Using detailed outcomes data, it is even possible to calculate the return on investment of digital tools in the reduction of sickness absence. 

Alignment with Government aims

The UK Government’s recent Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan has a stated aim to reduce the NHS’s sickness rates from its current rate of 5.1%, a figure far higher than the average in the private sector. Harnessing data on staff sickness absence offers the NHS an opportunity to better support its employees earlier and faster, to the benefit of all in line with these aims, and to reduce the burden on the NHS itself. This will also help to deliver the target to achieve a 2% year-on-year productivity gain in the NHS over the next 3 years.

Likewise, this approach aligns with the Government’s aims to reduce economic inactivity and help people to remain in the workforce. The 10 Year Health Plan, that includes shifts to prevention, community and digital, commits ICBs to establishing specific and measurable outcome targets on their contribution to reducing economic inactivity and unemployment based on the Health and Growth Accelerator models, launched in 2025 to build a more robust evidence base around the impact of health intervention on employment. This approach can also be applied within the NHS workforce using sickness absence rates datasets and digital therapeutics outcomes reporting.

Supporting staff and productivity

Improving NHS productivity cannot be achieved solely through optimising clinical pathways or administrative processes – supporting the productivity of the workforce itself is essential. A healthier, more resilient workforce is central to a more productive health service. When NHS employees are well supported and experience fewer episodes of long-term sickness absence, service capacity rises, continuity of care improves, and reliance on costly temporary staffing decreases. In short, reducing sickness absence is one of the most direct and impactful ways to improve NHS productivity and patient outcomes.

Health data is a huge asset. Shared data allows clinicians to access complete and accurate patient records, reducing delays, duplication of tests, and medication errors while enabling more personalised treatment decisions. At the population level, linked datasets reveal health inequalities, guide prevention campaigns, and help design services that better match community needs. Tapping into NHS employee health data can better support individual staff members, achieve the Government’s aim of reducing NHS sickness absence rates and help realise the vast improvements it can bring to patients and the healthcare system.