Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many days (a) nurses, (b) doctors and (c) other health service staff have taken off work for mental health reasons in each year since 2015.
The following table shows National Health Service sickness absence statistics in annual full time equivalent (FTE) days lost due to mental health related reasons, by staff groups, in the NHS in England, March to February each year, 2015 to 2020.
The sickness absence rate has been provided to account for the increases in the number of doctors, nurses and other staff.
Mental health related absence includes anxiety/stress/depression, other psychiatric illnesses, psychological, stress and other mental disorders.
Doctors | March 2015 -February 2016 | March 2016 -February 2017 | March 2017 -February 2018 | March 2018 -February 2019 | March 2019 -February 2020 |
FTE days lost due to mental health related reasons | 89,218 | 91,188 | 102,190 | 120,074 | 136,771 |
Sickness absence rate for mental health related absence as a percentage of FTE days available | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
Other Staff | March 2015 -February 2016 | March 2016 -February 2017 | March 2017 -February 2018 | March 2018 -February 2019 | March 2019 -February 2020 |
FTE days lost due to mental health related reasons | 2,188,226 | 2,347,086 | 2,571,263 | 2,902,457 | 3,382,200 |
Sickness absence rate for mental health related absence as a percentage of FTE days available | 0.9% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 1.2% |