Mental health issues account for almost a quarter of all NHS staff absences in England, with a stark rise in staff taking sick days for anxiety, stress, and burnout since the onset of COVID-19.

The absence rate during 2022 shows the NHS lost some 27 million sick days to absence. This is the equivalent of nearly 75,000 full-time staff and includes some 20,400 nurses and 2,900 doctors.

The figure, analysed by the Nuffield Trust from NHS data for the BBC, is a rise of 29% on 2019 – the last full year before COVID hit.

Mental health issues were the top single issue, with colds, coughs, respiratory problems, and the return of flu, accounting for further big rises.

In total across 2022, some six million working days were lost in total to mental health and wellbeing reasons.

The research also found the level of sickness absence is not equal around the country. By the end of 2022, the reported sickness rate in the North West stood at 7.4%, above the national average for hospital and community services, while London was 5.4%.

True absence levels likely to be higher

The trust’s senior fellow Dr Billy Palmer said: “The health service is grappling with a difficult new normal when it comes to staff sickness leave.”

He said while there has been a lot of focus on recruitment, more needed to be done to improve the working conditions of existing staff.

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“The workforce plan needs to have concrete support to enable employers to improve NHS staff experience if the service is to break this cycle of staff absences, sickness and leaving rates,” he said.

As not every absence would have been recorded, the trust said the figures were likely to be lower than the true numbers.

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The analysis comes days after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed his NHS Long Term Workforce Plan which he called the “largest expansion in training and workforce”.

The government is set to publish the long-awaited NHS workforce plan later this week to address the long-term woes in the health service.