Basically I have a stage formal sickness meeting after over two weeks off sick since December. The first was after burning my hand and this time having a grade 2 medial ligament tear.

What should I expect?

Stage 1 or 2?? Your Union rep should say don’t worry about it.
You’ve had two absences in how long? Can I take it you had doctor’s lines for both as I’m assuming each was more than a week?
Speak to your union rep basically..

Can’t speak for the NHS in particular but in most organisations, these things are all about the company covering their backs- making sure you’re being supported, there’s no underlying issues, if there’s anything they can do to help you return, that sort of thing, rather than being about hassling you for daring to be injured.

Ironically, in my experience companies deal far better with serious illness/injury than they do with everyday ones- I had constant hassle in my last job due to infrequent absences (below the national average but apparently they set off some sort of alarm bells), then I broke my hip and was off for about 3 months and never had the slightest hassle. Apparently being off for 2 days with the flu is more serious than being off for months with a leg 😉

Speak to your union rep, assuming you’re a member.

Stage 2. First incident was I badly burnt my hand at work, and had to have 12 days off due to infection control issues with the dressing on my hand. This time Its looking like I will be off for a fortnight, I have been off since last Thursday and my current sick note ends on the 11th March, but im seeing my GP on the 8th of march to see what the plan is.

I have a Grade 1 sprain to my Lateral Collateral Ligament and a Grade 2 tear to my Medial Ligament.

The swelling has gone down and its just bruising now, but I have trouble with stairs at the moment and cant turn without support from one crutch. Knee is also in a brace.

Not a unison member but im a member of RCN.

Do you not have a relationship with your manager where you can ask them about it?

I was off for about 20 weeks in total year before last. I had a couple of meetings with my boss, both times he started by saying, really sorry we have to do this, its more to catch the people taking the micky. Plus they have to be seen to be helping.

Unlikely to be a problem. Each NHS trust sets its own policy, but most of them have relatively high sickness rates due to long-term stress/back problems etc and short term feeling a bit poorly. The former is easy to spot, the latter which is sometimes more about people’s attitude to work is harder to deal with, so there are various formulas applied to absence which trigger managers to have a chat with someone. A common one is called the Bradford Scale. I think it is very unlikely that you’ll be having more than a fairly informal chat.

It won’t be a problem they’ll look at what’s happened with you and the discuss the sickness, most likely at the worst you’ll have an agreement of avoiding sickness over a set work period. Please join a union though this is one thing are very good at sorting out, RCN won’t.

Don’t know about the NHS but for it is the short term unexpected absences that cause the most problems planning production. Also more likely to be duvetitosis. Ive rewritten our absence policy recently, someone who’s been off 6 times for a day at a time is big trouble, have 6 days off in one go and there’s no issue. Every employee gets a back to work interview, partly to discuss attendance, which may be please don’t worry your general attendance is excellent or we’ll be inviting you to a disciplinary hearing as well checking their welfare and fitness to be in work if it’s a self certified absence.

For us it is 4 absences in a rolling 6 month period. Never had one but the meeting is normally just a case of talking about why you were off and making sure you are fit to come back. They want to cover their backs so it is not them making you I’ll and that you aren’t coming back AS a me member of the undead.

if it were tesco you’d be looking at a verbal warning re your inability to fulfil your contract of employment.. two more absences and you’d be unemployed..

I have a Grade 1 sprain to my Lateral Collateral Ligament and a Grade 2 tear to my Medial Ligament.

Interesting injury – how did you manage to do that?

Is there DEFINITELY nothing wrong with your anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments?

Managed to twist my knee under my motorbike after a cold tyre wobble. It pulled my knee back the force and twisted it. Had a x ray and a mri scan. As they thought I’d fractured my tibia at first.