Mental health absences in Scottish ambulance staff rise 150% in three years

Concern has been raised over the workload and wellbeing of ambulance after sick days attributed to mental health reasons rose 150 per cent in three years.

Some 8,356 working days in the Scottish Ambulance Service were lost to mental health-related reasons to mid December last year, up from 3,288 in 2017, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats via a Freedom of Information request revealed.

The figures showed the “tremendous toll” taken on ambulance staff by mental ill health, Scottish Liberal Health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said.

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"As they put themselves on the frontline of the pandemic, it is little surprise that 2020 was tougher still for many of them,” he said.

Picture: John Devlin.Picture: John Devlin.
Picture: John Devlin.

“The pandemic radically changed their workload and how they approached each situation.”

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He added: "Ambulance staff are among the many workers that we are relying on to respond to both the pandemic and the mental health crisis, but in doing so we need to have a needle-sharp focus on helping them with their own health."

While staff numbers have increased since 2017, the number of working days lost per staff number per year has also increased, from 11 in 2017 to 15 in 2020.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Our staff work incredibly hard, helping patients and saving lives every day.

“We understand the pressures they face and during the pandemic we’ve increased the range of wellbeing support available to our staff.

“In addition we continue to provide ongoing support and working with our staff we recently launched a new wellbeing strategy.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton successfully submitted a motion for Parliament to declare a mental health “crisis” in Scotland last week.

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A spokesperson said the Scottish Government valued the “tremendous” job done by ambulance workers in often “exceptionally challenging circumstances”.

“Like all of our frontline responders, their welfare and mental wellbeing is crucially important,” the spokesperson said.

"We are working to increase capacity and reduce individual workload across the Ambulance Service, investing over £1 billion over the last four years and committing to training an additional 1,000 paramedics.

“The Scottish Government is committed to working with NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to provide services to support all staff in these challenging times, including a range of wellbeing and psychological support provision."

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