The number of staff absences in NHS Borders due to mental health is “deeply alarming”, Borders MSP Rachael Hamilton has said.
Between 2018 and 2022, the numbers of sick days reported in NHS Borders for mental health reasons rocket from just 10 per year to over 9,000. This comes as a result of an unprecedented rise in the number of staff reporting sick because of mental health over the last five years, according to figures obtained in a recent FOI request.
Since 2019, an average of over 400 staff have had to take time off every year because of mental health problems, which equates to 10 per cent of the total NHS Borders workforce.
The FOI request also revealed that NHS Borders staff have had to work shifts as long as 19.5 hours - the longest anywhere in Scotland. This statistic has sparked concerns that the dramatic rise in mental health absences could be contributed to staff being overworked.
Ms Hamilton has said these figures had shocked her, and that her thoughts are with those members of staff in the Borders region who have had to take time off because of mental health issues. She added that NHS staff across the Scottish Borders are completely overwhelmed.
The Borders MSP has urged SNP Health Secretary Michael Matheson to treat these figures as an urgent wake-up call and to rip up Humza Yousaf’s “flimsy” NHS Recovery plan which, she claimed, has failed to support dedicated staff across the Borders and through wider Scotland.
Borders MSP Rachael Hamilton said: "The scale of absences among staff working in NHS Borders due to mental health absences is deeply alarming.
“My thoughts are with those members of staff across the NHS Borders region who have felt completely overwhelmed and needed to take time off work.
“These eye-opening findings highlight how the dire workforce planning from successive SNP health secretaries has left not only the Borders but the rest of Scotland with a shortage of frontline staff.
“We should never have reached a point where so many NHS staff in the Scottish Borders are beyond breaking point and so many working days are being lost.
“These figures must be an urgent wake-up call for the SNP’s most recent health secretary Michael Matheson.
“It is clear Humza Yousaf’s flimsy NHS Recovery plan has failed to support dedicated staff across Scotland and should be ripped up immediately.”
