Nurse sickness: more than half a million days lost in one month

Anxiety and depression key factors in NHS staff absences in England, and RCN points to unrelenting pressures and burnout despite small signs of workforce growth

Sickness absence among nurses in England’s NHS remains ‘stubbornly high’, with mental health issues the leading causes of absence, new data show.

NHS England workforce data published on 27 July shows nurses’ sickness rates remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. In March 2023, the overall rate for nurses and health visitors was 5.3%, resulting in 575,177 full-time-equivalent days lost. Some 29.9% of sick days were attributed to anxiety, stress, depression and other mental health conditions.

Overall sickness rates for nurses and health visitors in March 2020 was 4.7% and lower still in March 2019 at 4.3%.

• RELATED: Nurse sickness absence points to staffs burnout struggles

‘Far too many days lost to nurse sickness’, despite downward trend

RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said: ‘Today’s figures show rates of sickness among nursing staff remain stubbornly high and are well above pre-pandemic levels.

‘Although the overall rate has trended down slightly since December 2022, there are still far too many days lost due to nursing staff being off sick.’

Nurse numbers up in NHS England

Separate NHS England workforce data also published on 27 July show a rise in nurse and health visitor numbers, with 333, 994 in the service in April 2023, up 14,498 on the previous year. Overall, the NHS workforce expanded by 4.6% in the same period.

• RELATED: 7 signs you’re close to burnout and what to do about it

But Ms Marquis cautioned there continues to be ample evidence of a nursing workforce crisis.

‘There is unrelenting pressure on nursing staff, and a workforce with record vacancies is further depleted by high sickness and a record 7.47 million people on a waiting list. The result is patients receiving a lower standard of care and nursing staff being left burnt out and overstretched, with thousands more leaving the profession,’ she said.

The recently published NHS workforce plan pledges to recruit an additional 190,000 nurses to England’s health service by 2037, taking the total number of nurses in the workforce to around 545,000.

• RELATED: NHS long-term workforce plan: what’s in it for nursing and future students?

Health minister Will Quince said today’s figures show clear progress on the government’s plan to recruit and train record numbers of NHS staff.

NHS Confederation director of policy Layla McCay said: ‘While there are still 112,000 vacancies, and we are still a long way from where we want to be in terms of meeting the ambitions of the long-term plan, these are tentative steps in the right direction.’

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