Average time off work with a broken wrist

How long a broken wrist takes to heal

The NHS figure for recovery from a broken arm or wrist is around 6 to 12 weeks, longer where the damage was severe. You wear a cast until the bone heals, and the wrist may be stiff and weak once it comes off. The hospital gives you advice about exercises, and a physiotherapist can help with stiffness and weakness, which the NHS says can sometimes last several months or more.

Healing time is not time off work

Neither the NHS nor the government sets a period off work for a broken wrist. The healing figure tells you about the bone. Whether you can do your job is a separate question, and the answer depends on what the job asks of your hands.

Desk and office work. The question is whether you can do the work with one wrist in a cast, perhaps with changes such as different equipment, lighter tasks or shorter days. Which hand is injured can make a difference.

Manual, driving and hands-on work. The NHS says not to drive or try to lift heavy items until you have been told it is safe. If your job involves driving, lifting, tools or machinery, that advice applies directly, and it is part of what the doctor weighs up.

These are general points, not a timetable. The doctor treating you assesses your injury and your job, and your employer decides what changes it can make.

Sick notes for a broken wrist

For the first 7 days you self-certify. If you are off for more than 7 days in a row, your employer can ask for a note. Hospital doctors can issue NHS fit notes, and guidance says the professional responsible for your discharge should do so where possible, rather than sending you elsewhere. A GP can also issue one.

A fit note can say you are not fit for work, or that you may be fit with changes: a phased return, altered hours, amended duties or workplace adaptations. If your employer cannot make those changes, you are treated as not fit for work on the same note.

A private sick note is another option once the fracture has been treated. A GMC-registered UK doctor assesses you online and may decline. The certificate is not an NHS fit note: your employer chooses whether to accept it, which government guidance for employers says it can, and it is not valid for Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).