Number of NHS staff taking time off sick rises

The number of staff taking sick days has risen as the NHS comes under increasing strain.

The rise comes as hospitals, GP surgeries, mental health care and ambulance services have come under intense pressure as patient demand for treatment has increased.

NHS staff in England took a collective total of 16,866,471 sick days off work in 2016, according to health minister Philip Dunne.

That is a six per cent increase from the 15,970,492 days that the NHS lost in 2012 due to staff illness.

It has been revealed that the two main reasons for NHS staff falling ill and taking time off of work are mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and musculo-skeletal problems such as chronic back pain.

It is though that the rise will increase the NHS’s already high bill for staff sickness, which it predicted in 2015 costs £2.4 billion a year.

Kim Sunley, a senior employment relations adviser at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Nursing is a challenging job at the best of times but the current strain on the NHS is putting a huge amount of stress on individuals. Too many feel unsupported by their manager, overstretched and burning out.

“The sad consequence is an increase in stress -related illness, which is bad for the nurse and does not help the NHS to provide safe care to patients. They must look after their own mental health and be supported in doing so by their employer.”