Latest figures released by North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) has revealed that more than 25% of sick days are attributable to stress-related illnesses.
The North East Ambulance Service said its paramedics took 2,927 absence days due to anxiety, stress and depression between July 2017 and June 2018.
These figures will not come as a complete shock to emergency services / NHS personnel who are under enormous strain following the recent cutbacks to the emergency services.
This figures represents 25.87% of the total 11,310 sick days taken.
NEAS said it would “continue to support” its staff.
The average number of paramedics employed at NEAS during that time was 594, meaning each one lost an average of 4.9 days due to stress in those 12 months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Caroline Thurlbeck, director of strategy, transformation and workforce, said:
“Our absence rates are reflective of the physical and mental demands placed on our hard-working staff on a daily basis.
“Alongside the rest of the UK ambulance services, we have had a number of vacant posts for ambulance paramedics over the past few years but we continue our proactive recruitment campaign which has helped to ease the pressure on ambulance crews.
“We will continue to support our staff to manage their physical and mental health and wellbeing and reduce sickness absence across the trust.”
The organisation covers Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Darlington and Teesside.
No figures have yet been released in relation to the impact that
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More great comments from emergency-services.news, unfortunately not all of your facts within this piece are accurate. The Ambulance Service is NOT an emergency service it is an essential service, paid for by the NHS and not the government, which is why our renumeration package is so far behind that of the Police and Fire Services!!
The body camera trial so trumpeted by NEAS was mainly carried out by managers and very few road staff. The support they offer staff with MH issues is worse than useless. They have so many ‘projects’ to support staff, but they do absolutely zero. We are undermanned, underfunded and greatly under appreciated by management.