Thousands go on sick leave as crisis cripples NHS

by LAUREN CODLING

NHS staff are suffering from depression and anxiety which they are attributing to their jobs, doctors are claiming.

Over 200,000 health service employees took time off to deal with stress, anxiety or other mental health-related issues in the past three years, data released earlier this month by 170 trusts across the UK revealed.

Additional data showed that more than 91,000 NHS employees have taken at least a month’s leave to deal with stress.

Dr Samar Mahmood, a GP in South Yorkshire, said he was not surprised to see the increasing numbers of NHS staff taking time off due to stress-related illnesses.

“I myself have seen and treated a number of nurses suffering from anxiety and depression, which they have attributed to their job,” he told Eastern Eye last week.

Mahmood, who qualified as a GP in 2015, explained while he has not taken time off due to stress, the effects of it have made him physically ill on numerous occasions.

He said the high number of patients he sees in a single working day is “physically and mentally very tiring and stressful” and admitted it can be a challenge to balance work life and free time.

“Whether it’s the late evening finishes meaning I’m unable to make plans during the week or the large amounts of admin work which I bring home with me to do on weekends, what’s certain is that I’m never able to fully ‘switch off’ from work,” he said.

Dr Faiza Shah (not her real name), a GP partner and member of a governing body in Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) located in Surrey, shared Mahmood’s sentiments.

Shah revealed she is “constantly” having to check emails and test results, attend management meetings and read medical papers in her free time.

She also admitted she has contemplated switching careers due to the high levels of stress she has endured.

“I’ve thought about giving it all up and looked at going abroad,” the 37-year-old told Eastern Eye last Friday (19).

“But at the end of the day, my husband (who is also a doctor) and I have given our lives to medicine. We care about our patients and I couldn’t just abandon my colleagues.”

Both Mahmood and Shah revealed they were extremely short-staffed and the demand was “ridiculous”.

“It’s like we’re an elastic band and we just keep seeing patient after patient,” Shah admitted. “Today, we saw 10 extra patients between two of us.

“People just keep walking in and it’s getting to a point where the workload and the demands that are being placed on us is ridiculous.”

Over the winter period, it was revealed that the NHS had to defer approximately 55,000 non-urgent operations until the end of January.

Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth told Eastern Eye the “appalling” NHS winter crisis have revealed “harrowing” stories from “desperate” patients.

“Hospitals have been forced to take to social media to appeal for any available doctors or nurses to come to work,” Ashworth explained.

“Ambulance Trusts in the north of England have asked the public to bring their critically ill family members into A&E because of an acute shortage of ambulances.”

He went on: “Our prime minister is satisfied with burying her head in the sand, unwilling and unable to take bold and determined action. Bizarrely she claimed the NHS [was] better prepared than ever before for winter.

“It simply isn’t good enough. Patients and our heroic staff deserve better.” (see Ashworth’s comment piece here)

A Health Education England (HEE) study released earlier this month found the NHS will need approximately 190,000 extra staff by 2027.

However, research showed 15 per cent of nurses were leaving the NHS each year, while over eight per cent had left the health service entirely between 2016-17.

“We need to train more doctors, but the problem is these doctors will not be ready for another six to ten years,” Shah stressed. “It takes time to train people up.”

Mahmood added although there are measures to support staff, the measures are “not robust enough”.

“Occupational Health departments exist in every hospital, but they aim to look at ways of supporting staff back into work after a period of sickness, rather than preventing the sickness itself,” he explained.

“In some parts of the country, there are opportunities for GPs to undergo personal coaching sessions to help deal with the pressures of work – but no support to actually reduce these pressures.”

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “Addressing mental health issues in NHS workplaces, including stress, is therefore essential. The NHS provides a variety of support to staff who may be suffering from mental health problems.

“Support will come in a range of forms across trusts but could include, for example, rapid access to treatment schemes, maintaining contact if an employee needs to take time off, and support for returning to work.”

Shah, who took time off over Christmas due to work-related stress, said the government needs to take immediate action and changes have to be made. “We need to do something as it is getting untenable at the moment,” she said.

When contacted by Eastern Eye, the Department of Health and Social Care did not respond for a comment.