BOSSES at York Hospital have paid out more than £13million to staff off sick since January 2013.

Staff at the hospital phoned in sick 15, 148 in 2013, 14,738 times last year and 4,371 times in the first three months of this year, forcing the NHS Foundation Trust to pay out £13,937,033 in sick pay over 27 months.

This saw the Trust pay staff a combined entitlement of £6,042,012 in 2013, £6,247,100 a year later and £1,647,920 up to the end of March this year.

The highest number of sick days recorded in that period was in January of this year and December 2014 when 1,673 and 1,659 staff phoned in sick respectively.

December and January are traditionally the worst months for sick days across Britain, and this was the case at York Hospital, which recorded the largest number of sick days compared to any other month at the beginning and end of each year.

The hospital recorded 1,580 absences through sickness in January 2013, but this dropped to 1,423 a month later.

Similarly, in January 2014 1,441 workers pulled a sickie, but only 1,237 did so in February 2014.

A spokesman for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "A recent report published by the Health and Social Care Centre which looks at NHS sickness absence rates from October 2014 to December 2014 shows the average NHS sickness absence rate to be 4.56 per cent nationally and 4.87 per cent for Trusts in Yorkshire and Humber.

"Figures for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are significantly lower at 3.94 per cent for October, 4.02 per cent for November and 4.07 per cent for December.

"NHS work can often be physically and psychologically demanding which can increase the risk of illness and injury. The NHS is also one of few organisations that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

"We encourage our staff to stay healthy so that they are able to work and we have a comprehensive health and wellbeing strategy, which has been recognised as good practice."