12% of nurses off sick from hospital

THE absenteeism rate among nurses at Ennis General Hospital is almost four times over the HSE target level, a report shows.

In its first review of services at the hospital, a HSE Healthstat report detected absenteeism at 12% — well above a national target of 3.5%. The figures suggests 23 of the 295 staff were off sick on any given day in September.

The hospital had one of the worst absenteeism rates among the country’s 31 acute hospitals, which averaged 8%.