Stress takes toll on hospital staff: 91 take long-term sick leave
ALMOST 100 members of staff at East Yorkshire's hospitals have been off work for 28 days or longer due to stress and anxiety so far this year.
Since January, 366 workers at Castle Hill and Hull Royal Infirmary have been on long-term sick leave – 91 of them due to "anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses".
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Mental strain: 91 members of staff at East Yorkshire's hospitals have been off work due to "anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses".
Two members of the 8,385-strong workforce have been off for "colds, cough and flu", while one employee has been absent due to "substance abuse".
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the health body that runs both hospitals, pointed out that the overall figure is below the national average.
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Jayne Adamson, the trust's chief of workforce and organisational development, said its sickness absence rate was 4.08 per cent, compared with the NHS national average of 4.42 per cent.
She said: "Clearly, we take all instances of sickness and long-term sickness very seriously.
"Our managers receive training to enable them to support staff who are experiencing difficulties with their physical and psychological health.
"Specialist advice and support for individual members of staff and managers on all work-related health issues is available through our very good Occupational Health Service."
Ms Adamson said interventions, such as physiotherapy and counselling, are in place to address some of the main causes of staff absenteeism.
The trust advised caution against comparing the figures with those recorded in other areas of the public sector.
Ms Adamson said: "The NHS workforce is extremely diverse in terms of occupations and skills compared with many other public sector employers.
"For instance, NHS work is often physically and psychologically demanding, which increases the risk of illness and injury.
"The NHS is also one of few organisations that operate 24-hour services 365 days a year.
"We recognise the issues facing our staff and we work hard to ensure we support them when necessary."
The trust and the Department of Health were unable to provide a national average figure specifically relating to time off for stress.
Sharon Benstead, of the Royal College of Nursing, said morale is suffering as trusts struggle to meet demanding health targets set by Government.
She said: "Sadly, I'm not surprised by these figures.
"The NHS is a tough place to work at the moment.
"Staff are working at full stretch, often covering frozen or vacant posts.
"At the same time, patient demand and bed occupancy remains high, with staff working beyond their normal hours.
"If this isn't enough, staff are worried about their job security and making ends meet when their pay has been frozen for three years."
Comments
by Fogeyspasm
Sunday, June 24 2012, 1:35PM
“2 out of just over 8000 for flu or colds is astounding. So much for the constant media hammering of the public sector, you would be a lot more likely to have that number in a small private company.”
by Demonica666
Saturday, June 23 2012, 8:01PM
“Goodness me; what a refreshing suprise! When I clicked on this story, I expected numerous posts from people who have absolutely no idea what front-line staff have to do, berating public sector workers and citing 'gold-plated pensions', huge salaries, too many holidays, etc. Not to mention the ubiquitous 'they chose the job and could leave if they want'
We only have to look at the woman dragged out of the Humber to see that they are stressed for a reason! One last thing; apparently, the staff are subjected to vigorous sickness monitoring and if they have a certain (extremely low) percentage of sick time, they start a process which could lead to dismissal for ANY reason. Seeing as these staff are constantly exposed to contagious disease, perhaps this contributes to stress levels? Not rocket science I would have thought.”
by peterw6889
Saturday, June 23 2012, 6:28PM
“They should use the ridiculous ammount of money spent on incompetent managers to ease the lot of the frontline staff.There used to be a philosophy of promotion by excellence in the NHS which meant managers could act down and help in emergencies -- now,it seems, their just clueless bean counters!”
by HCAFCscarb
Saturday, June 23 2012, 2:12PM
“Well said Daves other half.
The nurse on the castle Hill Cancer wards are brilliant and go well above the call of duty to help patients.
Same as the brilliant caring nurses in Scarborough Macmillan unit
And the mac nurses .
Angels the lot of them.
:-)”
by audemars
Saturday, June 23 2012, 12:57PM
“I agree with Daves_Missus, the targets are a nightmare, and the only people who get credit when they are met are some stuffed shirts in management, and there are constant ways being devised to make it LOOK as if you are meeting targets.”
by gillpad
Saturday, June 23 2012, 10:49AM
“Look at today's stories for a fine example of the kind of dregs of humanity the staff are compelled to deal with on a daily basis.”
by Daves_missus
Saturday, June 23 2012, 9:15AM
“Sharon has summed it all up very well in the last part of the article. Nursing staff are constantly working below an acceptable staff/patient ratio. Someone goes off sick and there is nowhere to draft extra help in from, without transferring the problem to another area. The targets are a nightmare, especially the A/E 4 hour limit. The bed juggling that goes on to meet this target is almost beyond belief. In emergency care areas, the staff are having to spend a huge amount of time transferring patients out to get new ones in. That in itself is far more time consuming than you would think, and involves medical review,large amounts of paperwork, phone calls to arrange things with the receiving ward, phoning relatives to inform them, packing up belongings, finding all their medications and notes. Then doing the transfer itself, when there is a porter available. Then the bed to wash down and make up clean and finally the new patient can arrive and be admitted, hopefully (and invariably) within the 4 hour time frame. One nurse doing this, with an HCA between a couple of areas, as well as the other patients to look after, another 4 transfers to do and about 15 waiting to be admitted. Factor into this buzzers going, phones constantly ringing, patients becoming suddenly sicker and requiring escalation in terms of care, trying to do a round of observations and a drug round and make sure everything is done to the best possible standard. Oh, and let us not forget the "non-nursing" duties that have to be done, ie, all the controlled drugs checked and accounted for by 2 qualified nurses every 24 hours, all the near patient testing machines to be cleaned and calibrated, the cleaning work book that has to be worked through and signed for, yada yada yada. I think the staff that do this day in, day out, days, nights, weekends, Christmas Day, New Years Eve night, need a damn medal. And they actually make all this happen.Stress? What stress???”
by horbaczewski
Saturday, June 23 2012, 8:23AM
“S C R O T E S ^ That should read.”
by horbaczewski
Saturday, June 23 2012, 8:22AM
“Looking at some of the ******s they have to deal with I'm not suprised.”