News articles

NHS Direct employees banned from taking holidays

NHS Direct has banned its helpline staff from taking annual leave due to the influx of calls the service is receiving about swine flu.

Speaking to Personnel Today, the advice service explained that employees have been asked to refrain from booking any holidays until the organisation establishes how many workers it is likely to need.

Those who have already pre-booked annual leave have not had to cancel their holidays, however.

On Monday, 1,300 people called the service with questions regarding swine flu.

An NHS Direct spokeswoman said: "No annual leave has been cancelled, but staff have been asked not to book any new leave for the foreseeable future, until we work out how many staff we might need on the helpline."

Yesterday, there were five confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK with a further 78 suspected, but unconfirmed.