The health secretary says there should be a cultural shift away from workers “soldiering on” and going into work when they are sick.
Matt Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee that he wanted to see a 'change to the British way of doing things' and questioned why it was 'acceptable' for people to make their colleagues ill.
He added that he wanted 'massive diagnostics capacity' to be at the core of how people are treated in the NHS, to 'help people stay healthy in the first place'.
He suggested the nation should continue to use the 'global-scale diagnostics capability' that has been built around Covid 19, and in future get tested if experiencing any flu-like symptoms.
He said: "Afterwards we must use it, not just for coronavirus but everything.
“I want to have a change in the British way of doing things where ‘if in doubt, get a test’ doesn’t just refer to coronavirus but refers to any illness that you might have.
“Why in Britain do we think it’s acceptable to soldier on and go into work if you have flu symptoms or a runny nose, thus making your colleagues ill?
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“I think that’s something that is going to have to change.
“If you have in future flu-like symptoms, you should get a test for it and find out what’s wrong with you, and if you need to stay at home to protect others, then you should stay at home.
“We are peculiarly unusual and outliers in soldiering on and still going to work, and it kind of being the culture that ‘as long as you can get out of bed you still should get into work’.
“That should change.
“This year there’s been far fewer respiratory and other communicable diseases turning up at the in the NHS.
“I want this massive diagnostics capacity to be core to how we treat people in the NHS so that we help people to stay healthy in the first place, rather than just looking after them when they’re ill.”
