The mental health timebomb that is costing NHS Scotland £2m per health board

The cost of mental health absences to the UK’s healthcare systems has grown by more than 85 per cent in the past five years, figures have revealed, with health chiefs warning NHS Scotland workers now face a “stress and anxiety crisis”.

From across the UK, 42 NHS health boards and trusts provided data on staff absences in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) enquiries. The median length of mental health absences for NHS staff has been about 15 days for the past five years, based on the data gathered.

This figure peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic, at 16.8 days in 2020, but has remained at 14 or more since. With the exception of 2022, the FOI data shows that every year there was an increase in the number of days off attributed to mental health issues.

A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward. Picture: Jeff Moore/PA Wire

In 2020 there was a spike of more than a third (40 per cent), while 2021 and 2023 saw a 14.5 per cent and 6.9 per cent increase in mental health absence days respectively.

In 2019, there were an estimated 3,248 absences per 1,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. Four years on, in 2023, there were 4,403 absences per 1,000 FTE staff – a rise of more than one third.

Mental health leave is also responsible for long-term illnesses in the NHS. Mental health issues were found to be responsible for 12.5 per cent of all illnesses lasting 800 days or more.

This is more than cancers and infections, which both caused 8.8 per cent of long absences respectively.

The median length of mental health absences for NHS staff has been about 15 days for the past five years, according to new data

The FOI requests were carried out by the Reboot PR agency, which estimated the cost of mental health absences was £2m per NHS trust or health board.

Colin Poolman, the Scotland director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland, said there was “a stress and anxiety crisis” across the NHS and social care, as “staff try to cope and do more with less”.

“Unsafe staffing levels are putting patients at risk while emotionally draining the nursing staff, who are desperately trying to provide the best care they can,” he said..

“Meanwhile workplace culture is having a negative impact on staff wellbeing. The Scottish Government and employers must tackle the chronic, excessive work demands in nursing, which exceed the capacity of nurses to lead and deliver safe, high-quality care, and which are damaging their health and wellbeing.

“When nursing staff need health support, they deserve it and should not face barriers and delays.”

The RCN’s own investigation into mental health absences found the number of nursing staff absences has increased year on year since 2020-21, with working time lost due to sickness absence increasing in every NHS board.

Rates in the vast majority of territorial and special health boards are not only above the sickness absence rate of 4 per cent included in the predicted absence calculations for staffing levels, but “recurrently and substantially above”, according to the union.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We value the tremendous job our NHS staff do in what can be exceptionally challenging circumstances and take their welfare and mental health very seriously.

“We offer staff wellbeing resources, which include the 24/7 compassionate listening service, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service and access to psychological therapies and interventions. Our National Wellbeing Hub also offers a range of self-care wellbeing resources and signposting to relevant mental health and support services.

“In addition, the Health and Care Staffing Act, introduced on April 1, 2024, further supports the wellbeing of health and care staff.”