Patient safety

NHS workers ‘skiving off’ should be fired – Miliband

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said NHS ‘skivers’ should be fired to save stretched resources.

During a visit to Harlow in Essex, he took questions from members of the public, including someone who said that hospital workers were faking sickness to get time off work.

Miliband said: “I want a health service where if people aren’t doing their jobs properly, they aren’t doing their jobs any more. We should find a way to crack down on this and stop it happening.

“If people aren’t really sick then something should be done about it because the resources can’t be spared in the health service, certainly not spared on people who could be in work and aren’t.”

He said money in the NHS was too “tight” to waste, adding: “We should be totally intolerant of people who are skiving off”. 

Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]