New Brunswick health care workers highest absence rate

New Brunswick health care workers posted the highest absenteeism rates in the country last year, according to numbers released last Monday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Provincial health workers, ages 25 to 54, logged an average of 16.1 lost days in 2006.

That figure is more than double that of Alberta, which had the lowest numbers, at 7.2 lost days. Nova Scotia recorded a rate of 9.7. Manitoba placed second last, just ahead of New Brunswick, with an average of 16 days lost. The national average was 12 days.

The report, titled Canada’s Health Care Providers, notes such levels far exceed national averages for the general workforce.