In the second quarter of this year dominated by the corona pandemic, absenteeism in nursing, care and home care was 7.9 percent, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Thursday. Never before since Statistics Netherlands keeps track of the figures per sector has the number of sickness reports been so high.
Last year in the second quarter, absenteeism in this sector was 6.8 percent. For the Healthcare and Welfare sector as a whole, the percentage of sickness reports rose from 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2019 to 6.2 percent in the same quarter this year.
Absenteeism was also considerably higher among general practitioners, health centers and childcare than last year. There is hardly any difference in social work and mental health care, and absenteeism was even lower in youth care. Statistics Netherlands has kept this data per sub-sector since 2010.
According to Statistics Netherlands, the number of sickness reports is usually highest in the first quarter of a year and a sharp decline occurs in the three spring months thereafter. This was not the case this year: in the traditional first ‘snotter quarter’ the absenteeism rate was 8.0 percent and therefore hardly lower in April, May and June.
Incidentally, absenteeism in nursing, care and home care has been higher than in other sub-sectors of care since the start of the measurements, and has also increased faster since 2014. For the entire Healthcare and Welfare sector, the data goes back further: absenteeism in the second quarter was the highest since 2003.
National average sickness absence in the second quarter of this year was 4.5 percent, not much higher than the 4.3 percent a year earlier.
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