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Revealed: DH staff spend 60 days browsing Facebook a month

Exclusive Department of Health staff spend more time on Facebook and Amazon than browsing their own Government department's website, figures seen by Pulse reveal.

The data – released under a Freedom of Information request – show the most viewed website by Department of Health civil servants was the Daily Telegraph, with 1,168,861 page views, closely followed by Facebook, with 765,618 page views and 59.5 days of browsing time.

The Department of Health website was the eleventh most-visited website, with 97,146 page views and 20.9 days of browse time.

The figures – detailing page views and the time spent online between 1 and 29 July – show DH staff are spending time looking for love, hunting for jobs and buying gold.

DH staff spent 2.4 days on Match.com, with 9,001 page views, and 4.9 days browsing a site called Goldmoney, which provides ‘the best way to buy gold and silver'. They also spend almost two days browsing jobs on the NHS jobs website and the Guardian's jobs website.

Sporting events featured highly in the list, with 17.1 days spent keeping an eye on the latest cricket scores, and 3.3 days spent tracking the progress of the Tour de France.

The figures also reveal that PulseToday is the GP website most visited by DH staff, with 1,976 page views and 5.8 hours of browsing time in July.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: ‘Limited personal access to the internet is allowed as long as it doesn't interfere with day to day work. Managers are responsible for making sure their staff observe the IT policy.'

Dr Neil Bhatia a GP in Hampshire said: ‘I guess once the health bill is passed and the NHS is no longer their responsibility, then they really will be twiddling their thumbs!'

Top sites browsed by DH staff:

1.      www.telegraph.co.uk 1,168,861 (12.9 days)

2.      www.facebook.com: 765,618 (59.5 days)

3.      www.google.co.uk: 724,965 (82.4 days)

4.      www.bbc.co.uk: 268,847 (69.2 days)

5.      www.parliamentlive.tv: 248,873 (14.4 days)

6.      tap2-cdn.rubiconproject.com:  151,214 (22.6 days)

7.      www.guardian.co.uk: 136,125 (18.9 days)

8.    platform0.twitter.com: 107,826 (8.8 days)

9.     news.bbc.co.uk: 107,364 (23.2 days)

10.  www.amazon.co.uk: 102,524 (10.3 days)

11.  www.dh.gov.uk: 97,146 (20.9 days)

Source: Freedom of Information request