North East one of worst for stressed ambulance worker sick days

More than one in five ambulance workers have taken sick days due stress, according to new stats.

Research has found more than 80,000 sick days were taken because of stress and anxiety by frontline ambulance staff in the last year.

GMB, the union for ambulance staff, have revealed nationally that 12% of all ambulance staff were forced to take a sick day last year, but in the North East it was 22% coming second highest to East Midlands at just 23%.

The figures come from a series of Freedom of Information requests sent by GMB to all ten Ambulance Trusts in England.

GMB is campaigning for the paramedic retirement age to be equalised with other physically demanding front-line emergency service roles, such as police officers and firefighters who are able to retire at 60.

Kevin Brandstatter, GMB National Officer, said:

“These disturbing figures once again prove what we already know - that our frontline ambulance workers are in the midst a stress and anxiety epidemic.

“They are consistently overworked, underpaid and expected to do incredibly difficult jobs - such as dealing with the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster or Manchester bombings - without adequate staff or resources.

“Theresa May needs to stop buying her head in the sand and start listening to front-line ambulance workers.

"The absences caused by staff shortages and overwork are already contributing to potential delays in the attending incidents. The absence of staff due to stress will only compound this situation.

“If any patients lose their lives as a result, the blame falls fairly and squarely on an uncaring Tory Government for not dealing with stress and anxiety of our frontline emergency staff.

A North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) spokesperson, said:

“Our absence rates are reflective of the physical and mental demands placed on our hard-working staff on a daily basis. Their health and wellbeing is of the utmost importance and we are working hard to reduce sickness absence across the Trust.

“We have an in-house Occupational Health team who are able to support our employees and signpost them to appropriate services, including physiotherapists, doctors, clinical psychologists and other counselling services. They also carry out a vaccination programme, including the annual flu vaccine.

“We have also established a group of 30 Blue Light Champions, trained in supporting their peers, as part of our involvement in the Mind Blue Light Network, and we have established a debriefing system to ensure frontline employees are given support immediately after a difficult incident.”

“Our work to invest in our employees recently led to us being one of only three ambulance services to receive Investors in People accreditation."