In 2015/16 Sickness absence costs the Belfast Trust £30,500,000 (based on ‘time-lost’ data) with musculoskeletal (MSK) absence alone costing £6,000,000. The project is focussed on one directorate with 3,500 staff across a wide range of clinical areas. Inthe target directorate overall MSK absence costs £1.1million per annum. Early intervention physiotherapy has been shown to be cost effective in reducing absence (Boorman Review, 2009) as well as through pilot services within the Belfast Trust. A significant barrier to the ability to impact MSK absence is non-referral or delayed referral of employees, who are absent due to a MSK condition, to Occupational Health physiotherapy.Aim:We aim to increase ‘speed of referral’ to OH physiotherapy from 16 days to 5 days by June 2017. We aim to improve referral compliance from 55% to 80% referral compliance by June 2017.
