Hi What approach would the forum members take to counting the days lost in this scenario. Member of staff has medical and personal issues that are not, as far as we know, work related. They have a relatively minor slip/trip on a step and twist ankle, bruising etc and signed off for a few days. However as time goes by they are continually signed off sick for what appears to be issues that may not be directly related to the incident as far as we can tell. Now I don't want to be accused of "cooking" the stats, but how do you count the days lost because at the moment it's not looking good! Do you just take the total loss on the chin and count it all, or do you take some sort of guess on the likely time lost on that sort of incident. The problem is telling whether the impact of the original incident has contributed to or caused the whole lost time with someone who has other problems. You’re thoughts appreciated Thanks

Other issues include psychosocial/stress related problems, not known at this time to be work related. This is a hypothetical question, but an example of similar situations we have had.

I'd look at what's on the sick note - er fit note. If they're signed off there should be a reason given and if it isn't ankle/leg related, I'd not count it. Make notes in case of claim!