A quarter of staff absences in Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust are stress-related

NHS Digital figures show there were roughly 21,800 full-time equivalent days lost due to stress-related absences in the year to June at SFHT – which runs King’s Mill Hospital in Sutton – accounting for 24.6 per cent of the total 88,500 days lost.

It is up from 23.1 per cent of staff absences in 2021-22.

The figures cover all professionally qualified clinical staff, clinical support staff, and infrastructure support staff who were absent due to anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses.

Alex Baylis, from health think tank The King's Fund, said: "Workload pressure can particularly come from things like working extra hours, or managing a higher number of patients, because of staff shortages.

"It can build up if that’s the situation day after day.

“And it can be exacerbated by things like working across chaotic teams or processes, not having the equipment that’s needed, not having breaks, or unsupportive managers."

While leadership at team level is essential in supporting staff, Mr Baylis added the overall NHS staff shortages must be addressed.

He added: "Although everyone wants to reduce long waiting times as quickly as possible, that must not override the need for a culture of supportive management and supervision," he said.

Across all NHS England organisations, 6.1 million FTE days were lost to stress-related staff absences.

They made up nearly a quarter of all days lost in the year to June.

It is relatively in line with the year prior but down significantly from 27.7 per cent in 2020-21.

Overall, 25.5 million days were lost to staff absences in 2022-23, marking a fall from 26.6 million days the year before.

Dr Billy Palmer, Nuffield Trust senior fellow, said: "The level of staff sickness related to mental illness, anxiety and stress is a troubling indicator of the pressure being experienced by NHS workers."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are hugely grateful to NHS staff for their hard work and their health and wellbeing is of paramount importance.

"The NHS provides physical and mental health support – including targeted psychological support and treatment."

They added the Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by £2.4 billion in Government funding, focuses on recruiting and retaining more staff to make the NHS the ‘best place to work.’

Rob Simcox, director of people at SFHT, said: “We recognise the impact that working under intense pressure for prolonged periods has on our colleagues.

"We have an extensive programme of physical and mental health and wellbeing support to ensure that colleagues feel properly supported and can deliver the best possible care for patients.

“Despite the many national challenges across the NHS, it is great that colleagues’ overall experience of working at SFHT ranks among the very best in the country.

“While there is always more work we can do to support our people, we are very proud that SFHT is the best Acute Trust to work for in the midlands for the fifth year in a row, according to results of a national staff survey.

"Seventy-two per cent of our colleagues recommend the trust as a place to work (first in midlands and third in country) in the 2022 NHS Staff Survey.”