In hospital - sick leave or maternity assessment?

Plek Trum

Hello all,

would appreciate an answer on the following please.

I was admitted to CUMH last week with reduced fetal movements. I was kept in for 4 days (Mon - Thurs) for assessment and tests, was discharged Thursday evening (all is well thankfully).

Can anyone confirm if this would be classed as sick leave or leave to attend maternity appointments? I am located 2.5hours drive from the hospital and this was a factor in keeping me in each night for observation, rather than returning home and back the next day.

To clarify, I was admitted as an inpatient.

Any definitive answers appreciated - trying to balance days here in work and keep everything above board.

Many thanks.

December2012

Being sick during your pregnancy is sick leave. Maternity is for post delivery (apart from the time before your due date).

If your employer doesn't pay you when you're sick you can claim illness benefit.

Blingy

Agree this would be classed as sick leave.

indigo twist

In this case you would be unable to claim illness benefit, as it isn't paid for the first six days that you are off sick.

As regards leave for maternity appointments, this is from the Citizens Information website:

"Once your pregnancy is confirmed you may take reasonable time off for medical visits connected with the pregnancy. There is no maximum or minimum amount of time off specified for these visits. Rather, you are entitled to as much time off as is necessary to attend each visit. This includes the time required to travel to and from the appointment and the time taken for the appointment itself.

You will need to provide your employer with medical evidence confirming the pregnancy, giving 2 weeks’ notice of your medical visits. You should show your appointment card if requested by your employer at any time after your first appointment. You may also take time off for medical visits after the birth for up to 14 weeks following the birth. You are entitled to be paid while keeping these medical appointments both before and after the birth."

I've a feeling it could come down to the discretion of your employer - I'd be inclined to say, thought, that apart from the time allowed for the appointment itself (say, a half-day, to be generous and to allow for travel time), I would think that the remaining time would be recorded as and treated as certified sick leave.

Edit: Just re-reading your first post - I had thought at first that you were admitted at the time of one of your normal medical appointments - if this wasn't the case, and your employer hadn't been notified in advance, then I would say all four days would be recorded as sick leave. PS - good to hear all was well in the end!

Plek Trum

Many thanks guys, appreciate it. No, it was a routine check up with GP (maternity related) that started the chain of events, and I ended up travelling to Cork and being admittde. If its sick leave then thats fine, was hoping it might be employer discretion.

theLuggage

If you are in the public sector there is a difference between sick leave and pregnancy sick leave. Presumably that would fall under the latter, and it would be important for you to have it recorded as such for future sick leave entitlements.
Glad all was well, good luck with the rest of the journey!

2xj3hplqgsbkym

theLuggage wrote: »

If you are in the public sector there is a difference between sick leave and pregnancy sick leave. Presumably that would fall under the latter, and it would be important for you to have it recorded as such for future sick leave entitlements.
Glad all was well, good luck with the rest of the journey!

Yes, it is important that you get a letter from doctor to say it is pregnancy related illness as you are only allowed a certain amount of sick days over any 3 years. They may ask you to attend a certain gp to confirm that it is pregnncy related ( but not often I think).

Lucyn

theLuggage wrote: »

If you are in the public sector there is a difference between sick leave and pregnancy sick leave. Presumably that would fall under the latter, and it would be important for you to have it recorded as such for future sick leave entitlements.
Glad all was well, good luck with the rest of the journey!

Not any more unfortunately Pregnancy/maternity related illness days are now included in the sick days which are calculated over the last four years. I just checked it a few weeks ago and think it's very unfair especially if you have a difficult/threatened pregnancy.

theLuggage

Lucyn wrote: »

Not any more unfortunately Pregnancy/maternity related illness days are now included in the sick days which are calculated over the last four years. I just checked it a few weeks ago and think it's very unfair especially if you have a difficult/threatened pregnancy.

Yeah just became aware of that! But apparently they can't count preg. related illness in with regular illness for pay or promotions so not too sure why they are counting it together? Anything I've googled just there seems to be talking about half pay scenarios. As usual clear as mud!

Buttercup78

Seemingly if you go over the sick late threshold they will then go back through your sick notes and note if any were pregnancy related. That's what we've been told.

theLuggage

So they then they deduct out the pregnancy sick leave from the regular? Why count it in the first place then? Seems mad to me!

Buttercup78

I think so, I don't know how official that is though. Our system is all online so someone in the dept. sees the cert, inputs it and the cert is sent to HR, from what I gather they don't really look at them in depth, once the dates match they're happy. When it comes to the Threshold you can inform them what ones were pregnancy related and they go back through the certs and log them then. It's all a bit crazy, and in fairness HR in general make no sense, but thats what we've been led to believe in here.

theLuggage

Our system is the same except we keep our certs (I think!) and input the dates onto the system. And if they want to go through the certs they can request them. HR in general definitely make no sense. What a waste of someone's time to pick out all the preg. ones when they could be put in differently from the start. I think this why everyone hates the public service!!