I have developed a cataracts in that eye, which means I can get surgery to fix it and then get new glasses; or I can get new glasses now but the cataracts will get worse and then I’ll need new glasses again, or I can stay as I am and wait until after I retire and then get surgery and then get new glasses. Once I’ve had surgery to fix the cataracts the sight will stabilise and the prescription for new glasses should not change.
When I spoke to the surgeon this afternoon I initially said I’ll wait until next year when I retire, but now I’ve had time to think about it I’m going to talk to my boss tomorrow and see if I will be paid if I take more time off sick to get more surgery. Now I’m thinking if I can, I should get it done as soon as possible.
Not at all what I was expecting to hear, but it could be worse, after the next lot of surgery my sight should be at least as good as it was before and maybe even better.
It took me one and a half hours on the bus to get there and one and a half hours on the bus to get home. We had rain and wind last night and all the way the ground was covered in yellow leaves that had fallen from the trees. This song seems to suit my mood right now.
Sorry to hear that you need further intervention and I hope you get it as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteI assume you are referring to your employers own scheme when you question whether you will be paid if you take time off sick. Obviously the bottom line is you are entitled to 28 weeks Statutory Sick Pay if you can't work due to illness, but your employe's scheme is I'm sure much better than basic SSP.
If you were on sick leave for a long period of time after your operation did you accrue annual leave during that period?
Fogive me for sticking my nose in here where it may not be wanted Loretta, I'm sure you are clear about what you have and what you need in terms of time-off.....but I do think you are right to =want to get the problem sorted out soon rather than struggle on, not to mention the hassle around changing your glasses more than once.
I wish you luck in your discussions with your managers and hope you can get it all sorted out before too long.
A great autumnal video by the way.....it is a beautiful time of year (but then again so is every season I suppose).
You're not sticking your nose in. Sometimes I think it helps to run things past other people. When I was at the hospital my initial reaction was.... 'oh no I can't take any more time off work it will have to wait'. I work in the public sector, in a school, and therefore get really good ( compared to private sector employees) sick pay etc. I think the max we are entitled too is 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay, I'm pretty sure its the same for most public service employees. After that the council are not allowed to sack you due to illness but they don't have to pay you either. SSP wouldn't cover the bills at the moment so I have to rely on getting paid. And I'm not really sure how the 6 months full pay runs, I don't know if it runs from April to April or from Jan to Jan. And yes, I have had a fair bit of time off because I needed about 2 months for the eye surgery and prior to that I took time off because of arthritis. I seem to have had more than my fair share of health problems recently. My line manager is checking to find out how long I would be paid for if I took more time off. Anyway.............thanks for your concern, I'll let you know what happens.
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DeleteI thought that was the case but I wasn't sure? I think you'll find as a public sector worker if you have more than 5 years service you are indeed entitled to 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay under the contractual sick pay arrangements.
DeleteI suspect your year runs from 1st April to March 31st most do although not all. The reason I asked about annual leave before is there has been some EU law on this recently which means that if you were sick for part of or all of your leave year any untaken leave due to sickness can be carried over. This means that in some cases it would be possible to use carried over leave for prearranged periods of sick leave which does not affect your sick leave entitlement under your contractual arrangements.
The caselaw is called the Stringer case, which may or may not be relevant to your situation.
http://www.nhsemployers.org/EMPLOYMENTPOLICYANDPRACTICE/UKEMPLOYMENTPRACTICE/Pages/AccrualofStatutoryAnnualLeaveonLongtermSickLeave.aspx
Whichever way you should... I would imagine .... be able to take time off to convalesce after the operation using sick leave or a combination of annual leave and sick leave where the latter is running out.. Are you in a union by the way?
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DeleteI take on board what you say about annual leave but things work a little differently in schools. We only work term time and our annual leave entitlement is taken automatically during school holidays. We are only paid for the hours we work plus leave entitlement but the pay is divided equally between 12 months. That means we don't go without pay for a couple of months in the summer. I heard back from my line manager today, the way sick leave is calculated is complicated. Apparently sick leave is calculated from the day you go sick and the six months are counted backwards from that date. Basically what that means is that if I went sick tomorrow they would look back one year from tomorrow and calculate how much time I had sick in the previous year, if it was 4 months, I would be entitled to take 2 months on full pay. And of course the pay office is unable to calculate that before I actually go sick.... which is a bit weird I'm pretty sure they could count backwards if they wanted too. I'm still thinking about what to do, I'm so close to retirement I'm thinking of just leaving it till then, working out sick pay is a headache I could do without.
DeleteAgain... thanks for your concwern. Oh I just can't wait to retire.....................I want my life back
I hope and pray that you'll be able to take extra time off work to get the necessary surgery. Even if you have to wear glasses that are thick as bottles, it's important to be able to see. Sending you a hug
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenda, I hope so too, the sooner I get this fixed the better. But on the bright side, even if I have to wait until I retire, thats not long, my last day at work will be March 31 2013..............4 months and counting. :-))
DeleteI am sorry to hear you are having such problems with you eyesight, but I have to say your "eye" for beauty is just fine. That is an awesome picture !
ReplyDeletethanks, but that is part of the problem.................I can see Ok to do my photos and painting close up, I paint portraits portraits from photographs and I can manage that........but I'm begining to find it really hard to see to to the life drawing and thats a bit frustrating.
DeleteTried to leave a comment before but it failed, think I got it now...
ReplyDeleteMy husband had both eyes done a couple of months apart. He had miserable vision his whole life and now he can function if he wanted without glasses! Have no trepidation, my dear, it makes all the difference!
Much love.
S
Thanks Sue, you are the second person to tell me about people being able to see without their glasses after surgery. That would be very strange, I've been short sighted all my life and worn glasses from age 9. Glad your husband is ok it must be wonderful from him to be able to see like that. And I'm glad you found me here.
DeleteI deleted the post because of nasty little typos....tsk ....reposted it above (probably with other undetected typos) but I'm sure you'll get the gist anyway...I hate typos.
ReplyDeleteAll will be well, friend. I know many who've had to get cataracts taken care of. I will keep you in mind as the plans get made for the next steps. *hugs*
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