The number of staff days lost to stress, depression and anxiety at Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital has trebled in three years.
A Freedom of Information request by Oxford Mail has shown that personnel at the medical establishment had a total of 22,547 days off a year between them – an equivalent of 61.7 years.
In the first half of this year 10,195 absences have been reported for stress reasons and some believe that this is putting patients at risk.
One worker, who wants to remain anonymous, told the Oxford Mail: “I don’t think it is surprising. There are more patients and less staff. The doctors have less work but nurses have more responsibility.”
The medical professional added that while cover is rare, full-time replacements are equally hard to find and this is causing a difficult resourcing situation.
An earlier survey conducted by the local newspaper revealed that 36 per cent of staff at the hospital felt unwell because of work-related stress – up five per cent from 2012.
