Ambulance staff take thousands of days off with stress

STRESS accounted for almost a fifth of sick days among ambulance staff in the north west last year.

New figures released by NHS Digital show that paramedics in our region took a total of 6,628 days off because of anxiety, stress, depression and other stress-related illnesses between July 2017 and June 2018.

That accounted for 19.5 per cent of the total of 33,958 days lost for all reasons. Separate workforce figures show there are a total of 3,262 full-time or equivalent staff at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

It suggests each full-time paramedic is losing an average of two days a year to stress.

Across England, stress-related sickness was responsible for 21pc of all paramedic absences over the period.

That means paramedics in the north west were less likely to suffer from stress than the rest of the country, on average.

Paramedics in the West Midlands were the least likely in the country to take days off due to stress, but it still accounted for 19pc of all absences in the region (1.6 days per ambulance staff member).

On the other hand, almost 30pc of sick days taken by paramedics in the East Midlands were because of stress (3.7 days per staff member).

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Ambulance staff work incredibly hard in a high-pressure environment and we are supporting them through faster access to mental health and physiotherapy services.”

“With record numbers of staff working in the sector, it is positive to see the proportion of ambulance staff absence rates lowering every year for the past five years.”