Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sickness absence for mental ill health in National Health Service staff

ObjectiveTo explore the patterns of sickness absence in National Health Service (NHS) staff attributable to mental ill health during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in March–July 2020.DesignCase-referent analysis of a secondary dataset.SettingNHS Trusts in England.ParticipantsPseudonymised data on 959 356 employees who were continuously employed by NHS trusts during 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2020.Main outcome measuresTrends in the burden of sickness absence due to mental ill health from 2019 to 2020 according to demographic, regional and occupational characteristics.ResultsOver the study period, 164 202 new sickness absence episodes for mental ill health were recorded in 12.5% (119 525) of the study sample. There was a spike of sickness absence for mental ill health in March–April 2020 (899 730 days lost) compared with 519 807 days in March–April 2019; the surge was driven by an increase in new episodes of long-term absence and had diminished by May/June 2020. The increase was greatest in those aged >60 years (227%) and among employees of Asian and Black ethnic origin (109%–136%). Among doctors and dentists, the number of days absent declined by 12.7%. The biggest increase was in London (122%) and the smallest in the East Midlands (43.7%); the variation between regions reflected the rates of COVID-19 sickness absence during the same period.ConclusionAlthough the COVID-19 epidemic led to an increase in sickness absence attributed to mental ill health in NHS staff, this had substantially declined by May/June 2020, corresponding with the decrease in pressures at work as the first wave of the epidemic subsided.

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IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON SICKNESS ABSENCE FOR MENTAL ILL HEALTH IN NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE STAFF

10.1101/2021.06.09.21258629 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Diana van der Plaat ◽

Rhiannon Edge ◽

David Coggon ◽

Martie van Tongersen ◽

Rupert Muiry ◽

...

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Sickness Absence ◽

National Health ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Ethnic Origin ◽

Data Set ◽

East Midlands ◽

Occupational Characteristics ◽

Service Staff

Abstract Objective: To explore the patterns of sickness absence in National Health Service (NHS) staff attributable to mental ill health during the first wave of the Covid19 epidemic in March to July 2020 Design: Case-referent analysis of a secondary data set Setting: NHS Trusts in England Participants: Pseudonymised data on 959,356 employees who were continuously employed by NHS trusts during 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2020 Main Outcome Measures: Trends in the burden of sickness absence due to mental ill health from 2019 to 2020 according to demographic, regional and occupational characteristics. Results: Over the study period, 164,202 new sickness absence episodes for mental ill health were recorded in 12.5% (119,525) of the study sample. There was a spike of sickness absence for mental ill health in March-April 2020 (899,730 days lost) compared with 519,807 days in March and April 2019; the surge was driven by an increase in new episodes of long-term absence and had diminished by May and June 2020. The increase was greatest in those aged >60 years (227%) and among employees of Asian and Black ethnic origin (109%-136%). Among doctors and dentists the number of days absent declined by 12.7%. The biggest increase was in London (122%) and the smallest in the East Midlands (43.7%); the variation between regions reflected the rates of Covid19 sickness absence during the same period. Conclusion: Although the Covid19 epidemic led to an increase in sickness absence attributed to mental ill health in NHS staff, this had substantially declined by May and June 2020, corresponding with the decrease in pressures at work as the first wave of the epidemic subsided.

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Impact of workplace discrimination and harassment among National Health Service staff working in London trusts: results from the TIDES study

BJPsych Open ◽

10.1192/bjo.2020.137 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rebecca D. Rhead ◽

Zoe Chui ◽

Ioannis Bakolis ◽

Billy Gazard ◽

Hannah Harwood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Sickness Absence ◽

National Health ◽

Turnover Rates ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Service Staff ◽

The Impact

Background Harassment and discrimination in the National Health Service (NHS) has steadily increased over the past 5 years with London being the worst performing region. There is a lack of data and research on the impact this is having on staff health and job satisfaction. Such data are necessary to inform the development of effective workplace interventions to mitigate the effects these experiences have on staff. Aims Examine the impact of harassment and discrimination on NHS staff working in London trusts, utilising data from the 2019 TIDES cross-sectional survey. Method In total, 931 London-based healthcare practitioners participated in the TIDES survey. Regression analysis was used to examine associations between the sociodemographic characteristics of participants, exposure to discrimination and harassment, and how such exposures are associated with physical and mental health, job satisfaction and sickness absence. Results Women, Black ethnic minority staff, migrants, nurses and healthcare assistants were most at risk of discrimination and/or harassment. Experiencing either of the main exposures was associated with probable anxiety or depression. Experiencing harassment was also associated with moderate-to-severe somatic symptoms. Finally, both witnessing and experiencing the main exposures were associated with low job satisfaction and long periods of sickness absence. Conclusions NHS staff, particularly those working in London trusts, are exposed to unprecedented levels of discrimination and harassment from their colleagues. Within the context of an already stretched and under-resourced NHS, in order to combat poor job satisfaction and high turnover rates, the value of all healthcare practitioners must be visibly and continuously reinforced by all management and senior leaders.

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Scottish rehabilitation services: eight year follow-up

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.17.6.341 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 341-344

Author(s):

Robin G. McCreadie ◽

Douglas J. Williamson ◽

Lesley J. Robertson

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

National Health ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Support Services ◽

Psychiatric Rehabilitation ◽

Rehabilitation Services ◽

Local Authorities

A survey of Scottish psychiatric rehabilitation and support services, carried out in 1983 (McCreadie et al, 1985), found that although there were wide between-hospital differences, the National Health Service in Scotland was making considerable efforts to provide services for the long-term mentally ill. However, services provided by local authorities were seriously deficient.

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The lost worlds of royal commissions in the NHS: The unaccountable in pursuit of the unanswerable?

Teaching Public Administration ◽

10.1177/0144739419830449 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 199-217

Author(s):

Martin Powell

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

National Health ◽

Royal Commission ◽

Select Committee ◽

House Of Lords ◽

The Impact ◽

British National Health ◽

Advisory Bodies

There have been recent calls for a royal commission (RC) on the British National Health Service (NHS). This article focuses on the impact of RCs and similar advisory bodies, particularly on finance recommendations, of three inquiries with broad remits across the whole of the NHS from very different periods: Guillebaud (1956); Royal Commission on the National Health Service (1979); and House of Lords Select Committee on the Long-term Sustainability of the NHS (2017). These inquiries appear to have had rather limited impacts, especially on NHS funding. First, there appears to be some hesitancy in suggesting precise figures for NHS expenditure. Second, the reports are advisory, and governments can ignore their conclusions. Third, governments have ignored their conclusions. In the 1950s and the 1980s, contrary to the recommendations of the inquiries, NHS expenditure subsequently grew only slowly, and charges were increased. In short, asking an independent RC to provide answers on NHS expenditure is perhaps the unaccountable in pursuit of the unanswerable.

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How do aggression source, employee characteristics and organisational response impact the relationship between workplace aggression and work and health outcomes in healthcare employees? A cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Service staff survey in England

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035957 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. e035957

Author(s):

Shannon Cheng ◽

Jeremy Dawson ◽

Julie Thamby ◽

Winston R Liaw ◽

Eden B King

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

National Health ◽

Work Engagement ◽

Turnover Intentions ◽

Future Research ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Service Staff ◽

Employee Characteristics ◽

Healthcare Employees

ObjectivesTo examine the prevalence of aggression in healthcare and its association with employees’ turnover intentions, health and engagement, as well as how these effects differ based on aggression source (patients vs colleagues), employee characteristics (race, gender and occupation) and organisational response to the aggression.DesignMultilevel moderated regression analysis of 2010 National Health Service (NHS) survey.Setting147 acute NHS trusts in England.Participants36 850 participants across three occupational groups (14% medical/dental, 61% nursing/midwifery, 25% allied health professionals or scientific and technical staff).Main outcome measuresEmployee turnover intentions, health and work engagement.ResultsBoth forms of aggression (from patients and colleagues) have significant and substantial effects on turnover intentions, health and work engagement; however, for all three outcome variables, the effect of aggression from colleagues is more than twice the size of the effect of aggression from patients. Organisational response was found to buffer the negative effects of aggression from patients for turnover intentions and the negative effects of aggression from patients and colleagues for employee health. The results also demonstrated that nurses/midwives, women and Black employees are more likely to experience aggression; however, no clear patterns emerged on how aggression differentially impacts employees of different races, genders and occupations with respect to the outcome variables.ConclusionsAlthough aggression from patients and colleagues both have negative effects on healthcare employees’ turnover intentions, health and work engagement, these negative effects are worse when it is aggression from colleagues. Having an effective organisational response can help ameliorate the negative effects of aggression on employees’ health; however, it may not always buffer negative effects on turnover intentions and work engagement. Future research should examine other approaches, as well as how organisational responses and resources may need to differ based on aggression source.

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Quantifying the impact of delayed delivery of cardiac rehabilitation on patients’ health

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology ◽

10.1177/2047487320912625 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (16) ◽

pp. 1775-1781

Author(s):

Sebastian Hinde ◽

Alexander Harrison ◽

Laura Bojke ◽

Patrick Doherty

Keyword(s):

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Life Expectancy ◽

Cardiac Rehabilitation ◽

National Health ◽

Average Lifetime ◽

National Guidelines ◽

Patient Health ◽

The Impact

Background Despite its role as an effective intervention to improve the long-term health of patients with cardiovascular disease and existence of national guidelines on timeliness, many health services still fail to offer cardiac rehabilitation in a timely manner after referral. The impact of this failure on patient health and the additional burden on healthcare providers in an English setting is quantified in this article. Methods Two logistic regressions are conducted, using the British Heart Foundation National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation dataset, to estimate the impact of delayed cardiac rehabilitation initiation on the level of uptake and completion. The results of these regressions are applied to a decision model to estimate the long-term implications of these factors on patient health and National Health Service expenditure. Results We demonstrate that the failure of 43.6% of patients in England to start cardiac rehabilitation within the recommended timeframe results in a 15.3% reduction in uptake, and 7.4% in completion. These combine to cause an average lifetime loss of 0.08 years of life expectancy per person. Scaled up to an annual cohort this implies 10,753 patients not taking up cardiac rehabilitation due to the delay, equating to a loss of 3936 years of life expectancy. We estimate that an additional £12.3 million of National Health Service funding could be invested to alleviate the current delay. Conclusions The current delay in many patients starting cardiac rehabilitation is causing quantifiable and avoidable harm to their long-term health; policy and research must now look at both supply and demand solutions in tackling this issue.

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Tilting the balance: the first long-term medium secure unit in the NHS in England and Wales

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.30.1.25 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 25-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Niamh Power ◽

Dawn Harwood ◽

Akintunde Akinkunmi

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Risk Assessment ◽

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

National Health ◽

The West ◽

England And Wales ◽

Future Developments ◽

Secure Unit

Rollo May Ward, a long-term medium secure facility integrated within the West London Mental Health National Health Service (NHS) Trust, is the first dedicated long-term NHS medium secure unit to have opened in England. It caters for a group of men with complex clinical needs and risk assessment issues who had previously been inappropriately detained within high secure services owing to a lack of suitable, less secure placement facilities. We describe the background to the development of the long-term medium secure service, the referral and assessment processes, the structure of the ward and the therapeutic programmes available to patients. We also outline the characteristics of the first 21 patients to be admitted to the ward and offer advice for similar future developments.

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