Sick staff are costing hospital bosses more than £20 million a year.
Hospital employers say that overall sickness rates are going down but that targets for absences are still not being met.
The West Sussex trust is aiming for a rate of no more than 3.3% of people off sick at any time, but the rate currently stands at 3.38% so far this year, with a peak in April of almost 3.6%.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust estimates that absence costs it around £10m a |year, while Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust are around £7.5m apiece.
Most long-term sickness was down to back and muscle problems as well as stress, depression and anxiety.
Short-term absences are mainly caused by gastric illnesses and coughs, colds and flu.
The figures have emerged at a time when hospitals are battling to make millions of pounds of savings while treating unprecedented numbers of patients.
Extra hours
Increased burden In a report to the Western Sussex Hospitals board, trust workforce manager Jo Fanning said reducing sickness rates by just half a percent would save around £1.5m a year.
The report said: “There is a culture within the trust of staff working additional hours and not taking their appropriate breaks.
“This can be a particular issue in areas where there is already high sickness absence as there is an increased burden on those staff with good attendance records.”
She said that when back-up workers are not brought in to fill spaces, remaining staff are “often expected to undertake additional work to cover their colleagues’ absence”.
She added: “This can lead to increased working hours and potential negative health impacts for those staff.”
A spokesman for Unison said: “This is a difficult time for staff at all NHS trusts, with many uncertain about their future and struggling to cope with the extra work created by other workers losing their jobs.”
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