The tabloids (and tabloid broadsheets, if that is not a contradictory term) are in a froth over the 45,000 people a day who go sick from the NHS. Given that the NHS is now the second biggest employer in the World (after Indian Railways) the scale of absenteeism is not that surprising.
The press claim that these levels of sickness are far greater than the private sector (without saying which bit of the private sector: shop staff, car workers, gardners?). The NHS unions claim that this is all part of a dastardly plan by the government to bring in more privatisation by making their staff look lazy.
Couldn't it just be that they spend all their time looking after sick people and are, therefore, much more likely to get sick themselves?
