NHS staff taking 3.5 million sick days for mental health problems

The NHS is losing more than 3.5 million days of work because of staff sickness linked to mental health problems, it has emerged.

New data from NHS England shows the problem is getting worse with an increasing number of days and proportion of staff off sick for mental health reasons.

The data runs from March 2019 to February 2020, before the coronavirus crisis. It is feared the pandemic could lead to lasting mental health issues for some NHS workers.

Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP who obtained the data through a parliamentary question, said: “These incredibly worrying figures show the mental health of NHS workers was already at a tipping point before the pandemic struck."

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Source: The Independent, 14 July 2020