Mental health leave for paramedics triples since 2011

New analysis has found that the number of paramedics in England taking time off with mental health conditions has almost tripled over the last decade.

In 2019, paramedics took 52,040 days off due to anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illnesses, an increase of 186 per cent on the 2011 figure of 18,184.

The total absence for the first few months of 2020 stands at 21,015 days off, prompting warnings that coronavirus will pile more stress on already stretched staff. However, even before the coronavirus pandemic, at least 1,313 paramedics were forced to take time off with mental health conditions in 2019 – up 235 per cent since 2011.

While the overall number of paramedics has increased slightly over the period, the rate of mental health leave has increased more, resulting in the average number of days taken off per paramedic in a year rising from 2.8 to 5.8.

According to responses from seven English NHS ambulance trusts to freedom of information requests, some regions are seeing an average of more than five days taken off per paramedic.

Of those providing data, the trusts with the highest number of stress-related leave days per paramedic were the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) NHS trust, East of England Ambulance Service NHS trust, and North East Ambulance Service NHS foundation trust.

Sara Gorton, Unison’s head of health, said: “Crisis-level staffing has increasingly become the norm within the NHS in recent years, even before the pandemic. Working long hours without breaks, in demanding conditions, it’s no wonder it’s taken a toll on the mental health of workers across the health service. And the coronavirus challenges have piled on more pressure.”

Liz Harris, head of professional standards at the College of Paramedics, said: “We are very concerned that the mental health of our paramedic members and ambulance colleagues appears to have been deteriorating for many years, with a lack of sustained or systemic action to slow and halt this trend.

“There has been a range of free mental health support resources throughout Covid-19 for NHS staff but we are unsure at this time whether they will remain, and if so for how long.”