eTHOS

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Enhancing the Health of NHS Staff: eTHOS. A randomised controlled pilot trial of an employee health screening clinic for NHS staff

• IRAS ID

  261855

• Contact name

  Rachel Jordan

• Contact email

  r.e.jordan@bham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Birmingham

• ISRCTN Number

  ISRCTN10237475

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 2 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Absenteeism (time off from work due to ill health) and presenteeism (attendance at work whilst ill, resulting in poor work performance) amongst NHS staff are major problems. Absenteeism costs the NHS £2.4b per year.
  The main causes of NHS staff absenteeism/presenteeism include muscular complaints (e.g. back injuries) and mental ill-health. Lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity and low levels of exercise are also important.
  Improving NHS staff health should improve NHS patient care and reduce the costs of replacing staff on sick leave, but there are no studies to tell us the most effective way to achieve this.

  We propose offering a health check to NHS staff which has been designed to screen and then treat the most common causes of ill health in NHS staff. Since we don’t know if this will be effective we wish to first carry out a pilot study in 4 hospitals. We hope to recruit 480 staff members. Participants will provide consent and baseline data. They will then be randomly allocated to receive this health check or usual care (visiting their GP as normal) to investigate if it is effective and cost-effective in improving health and reducing absenteeism and presenteeism. Participants allocated to receive the health check will complete the screening assessments and will be referred to appropriate services if necessary. Participants will be followed up at 26 and 52 weeks

  We will assess whether we can recruit to the study, whether a broad range of NHS staff would use a health screen, and if referrals are taken up. We will also test all the processes of gathering data and ask the opinions of staff attending and providing the clinic. If the pilot study proves feasible then we will design a full trial and recruit new hospitals to take part.

• REC name

  West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  19/WM/0378

• Date of REC Opinion

  13 Jan 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion