Staff ill-health soars to 6,363 days lost
Record number of non-working days at the hospital
Almost a quarter of sick days taken by staff at Scarborough Hospital are due to mental health reasons, figures reveal.
Last year, 6,363 working days were lost at Scarborough Hospital due to mental health reasons such as depression, anxiety and stress.
This equates to 22.7% of all sick days taken by staff at the hospital.
Earlier this year, The Scarborough News revealed abuse between staff members at the Woodlands Drive hospital had reached a record high.
One former member of staff at the hospital said: “I have become aware that staff sickness absence has become a serious problem with staff suffering from stress.
“One member of staff told me that GPs in Scarborough now consider staff being stressed at Scarborough as at epidemic levels.”
A Freedom of Information request made by this newspaper has revealed that there has been a 60% increase in days off due to mental health between April 2016 and March 2017 compared to the same period in 2013/14.
Nigel Ayre, delivery manager at Healthwatch North Yorkshire, said: “Any instances of staff days lost due to mental health is deeply concerning.
“That Scarborough shows significantly more issues than elsewhere is something that needs to be addressed.
“We know that staff across York and Scarborough are operating under very difficult financial pressures and we will be working with the Clinical Commissioning Group and provider to see
‘Staff are operating under very difficult financial pressures’
how this trend can start to be reversed.
“Staff are the NHS’ biggest asset and it’s essential they have the right support to help them do their jobs.”
Staff sick days due to mental health reasons has risen from 3,975.05 days from April 2013 to March 2014 to 6,363.86 in the same period between 2016/17.
A spokesperson for the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “The number of days lost due to mental health represents around 1% of all staff days lost due to sickness absence at Scarborough Hospital.
“These figures refer to all mental health related absences (stress/anxiety/ depression/other psychiatric illnesses), and no distinctions are made between the types of absence and whether or not they are work-related.
“The Trust attaches great importance to the health, safety, and wellbeing of its employees.
“In line with national programmes, the Trust has done a lot of work to improve its management of mental health absences.
“As part of this work, we have seen staff become more comfortable reporting mental health absences, which has subsequently increased the number of attributable absences.
“Staff can access a range of free occupational health services including counselling, stress management, fast-track physiotherapy, and a range of wellbeing services, as well as discounts to local gyms to help improve their overall health and wellbeing.
“The effectiveness of this approach is reflected in the trust’s overall sickness absence rate, which has consistently tracked below the regional absence rate for Yorkshire and the Humber.”