A quarter of staff absences at Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals Trust are stress-related

NHS Digital show there were roughly 36,500 full-time equivalent days lost due to stress-related absences in the year to June at DBTH, accounting for 28.4 per cent of the total 128,600 days lost.

It is up from 24.4 per cent of staff absences in 2021-22.

The figures cover all professionally qualified clinical staff, clinical support staff, and infrastructure support staff who were absent due to anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses.

Alex Baylis, from health think tank The King's Fund, said: "Workload pressure can particularly come from things like working extra hours, or managing a higher number of patients, because of staff shortages.

"It can build up if that’s the situation day after day.

“And it can be exacerbated by things like working across chaotic teams or processes, not having the equipment that’s needed, not having breaks, or unsupportive managers."

While leadership at team level is essential in supporting staff, Mr Baylis added the overall NHS staff shortages must be addressed.

He added: "Although everyone wants to reduce long waiting times as quickly as possible, that must not override the need for a culture of supportive management and supervision.”

Across all NHS England organisations, 6.1 million FTE days were lost to stress-related staff absences.

They made up nearly a quarter of all days lost in the year to June.

It is relatively in line with the year prior but down significantly from 27.7 per cent in 2020-21.

Overall, 25.5 million days were lost to staff absences in 2022-23, marking a fall from 26.6 million days the year before.

Dr Billy Palmer, Nuffield Trust senior fellow, said: "If staff who are off sick cannot be covered by temporary staffing, this has a direct impact on those receiving care, and those stuck on waiting lists waiting for care."

"The level of staff sickness related to mental illness, anxiety and stress is a troubling indicator of the pressure being experienced by NHS workers."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are hugely grateful to NHS staff for their hard work and their health and wellbeing is of paramount importance.

"The NHS provides physical and mental health support – including targeted psychological support and treatment."

They added the Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by £2.4 billion in Government funding, focuses on recruiting and retaining more staff to make the NHS the ‘best place to work.’

Zoe Lintin, chief people officer at DBTH, said: “As with many NHS organisations across the country, we recognise that the recent figures on stress-related employee absences at the trust aren’t where we would like them to be, and we are committed to continuing to tackle this.

“Our award-winning health and wellbeing programme, coupled with targeted interventions, underscores our commitment to reducing stress and supporting our team.

"Addressing workforce shortages and prioritising wellbeing remain paramount in our ongoing efforts and form part of our recently published People Strategy."