Concern at debilitating stress toll on NHS workforce

EXPERTS HAVE raised concern over “debilitating” work stress for NHS staff.

One academic said that staff entered the coronavirus pandemic with “high” levels of stress.

Plans have been proposed to support the NHS workforce, but without a detailed workforce strategy the plans are like a “new car without an engine”, said Professor Michael West from the King’s Fund think- tank.

Prof West told the Health and Social Care Select Committee that one previous survey found that 27 per cent of staff had minor psychiatric illness compared with 18 per cent of the general working population as a whole.

And new research looking into the effect of the pandemic on NHS staff – which has had a particular focus on staff in intensive care units – suggests “significant impacts upon wellbeing”, he added. But he said that an “extraordinary” number of NHS staff have accessed support services set up as a result of the pandemic.

NHS officials told MPs about the support package available to NHS staff throughout the pandemic, including a new funding boost for those in need of rapid assessment and care.

“Back in January stress levels in the NHS were at their highest since we began recording stress levels and the kind of way that we do,” Prof West said.

“We know that around 50 per cent more staff in the NHS report debilitating levels of work stress compared with the general working population as a whole. And in 2019, 41 per cent of NHS staff in the national staff survey reported that they had been unwell as a result of work stress during the previous year. For nurses that was 44 per cent, for midwives it was 51 per cent. Overall I think the picture that we had was a very high stress levels and then the pandemic struck.”

When asked about the NHS People Plan, Prof West said that the plan has many strengths, but he added: “In the sense the People Plan is like a very smart- looking car but we don’t yet have the engine of a detailed workforce strategy.”

He said that workforce gaps were already putting “enormous pressure” on existing staff before the pandemic.