NEARLY a quarter of sick days in Colchester’s NHS trust were due to stress-related reasons with 3,330 lost days due to mental health in one month alone, new figures have revealed.

NHS Digital figures show 14,800 days were lost due to staff absences in East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which covers Colchester Hospital, in February.

A total of 3,300 of these lost days were due to anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses, accounting for 22 per cent of staff sick days and being the most reported reason for sickness.

This is an increase of 20 per cent from last February and is in line with 2019, before the pandemic.

Average - Across England 26 per cent of all sick days were stress-related, at ESNEFT which covers Colchester Hospital the figure wasAverage - Across England 26 per cent of all sick days were stress-related, at ESNEFT which covers Colchester Hospital the figure was 22 per cent (Image: Newsquest)

Across England, anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illnesses accounted for over 545,100 days lost and 26 per cent of all sickness absences in February.

This is an increase from 25 per cent from the before and increase from 23 per cent in 2019.

The figures also show the overall sickness absence rate for England was 5 per cent which was the same for ESNEFT.

Support - ESNEFT director Kate Read said that there was a wellbeing team and a wellbeing online service for staff Support - ESNEFT director Kate Read said that there was a wellbeing team and a wellbeing online service for staff (Image: ESNEFT)

Kate Read, director of people and organisational development at ESNEFT, said: “Everyone across the NHS and at our Trust is working hard to improve the lives of the patients we serve.

“We acknowledge it can be tough and we're so grateful for all their efforts to provide high quality, safe care.”

Ms Read added: “More staff now feel comfortable to report being off work with mental health issues, including stress.

“This means we can offer them the right support at the right time, both online and in person.”

Ms Read added how there is an accessible online wellbeing hub for colleagues as well as a wellbeing team which includes clinical psychologists.

She said: “We aim to get in touch with a colleague within 24 hours of a stress-related absence being reported”.

“Our wellbeing team can then put the right support packages in place. We also help staff to come back to work when they're ready through therapeutic and phased returns."