Patients Left “Languishing on Waiting Lists” as NHS Staff Take Record 8 Million Days Off for Anxiety and Stress
Patients have been left “languishing on waiting lists” as NHS staff took a record eight million days off work last year with mental health issues such as anxiety and stress, up 42% since 2020. The Mail has the story.
Health bosses left patients “languishing on waiting lists” as they struggled to cope with rocketing absences due to sickness and industrial action.
Resident [junior] doctors will today cause more misery, cancellations and delays with another walkout in pursuit of a 26% pay rise.
The number of sick days taken by NHS staff due to poor mental health has soared by 42% since 2020 and comes amid wider concern about the nation’s approach to such issues.
The NHS in England lost 28 million days to staff sickness in 2025, up from 21 million in 2020 and higher than in any previous year, according to newly published data.
Of these, more than one in four – a record 7.9 million – were due to “anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses”.
Callum McGoldrick, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which analysed the NHS England sickness data, said: “Taxpayers will be utterly stunned by the sheer scale of working days lost within the NHS.
“While genuine illness is unavoidable, absence rates have soared to record highs year after year, costing the public billions and leaving patients languishing on record waiting lists.
“Hard-working Britons in the private sector, who foot the bill for the health service, will be asking why NHS management seems completely incapable of keeping its own workforce healthy and on the job.
“Health bosses must urgently get a grip on this crisis. Every day lost is a day that should have been spent cutting the backlog.”
The health service has lost 151.6 million days to sickness since records began in their current form in mid-2019, meaning 6% of all working days were lost to poor health – three times more than the average across all sectors.
Furthermore, the NHS lost 262,592 days to industrial action by resident doctors last year, with the British Medical Association marching its members out on strike in July, October and December.
From yesterday, new laws passed by the Government mean employees are entitled to sick pay from their first day in a job.
Worth reading in full.
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It is me or did the article on the Clapham Riots disappear?
I think it must be you. I can still get it, unfortunately, as it is grim reading.
Definitely disappeared for a while, back now.
Still here: https://staging.dailysceptic.org/2026/04/07/the-clapham-mayhem-shows-elites-the-monster-theyve/
I am being repetitive…
1948 Pre-NHS: 2 750 hospitals, 480 000 hospital beds, fully staffed by indigenous British, waiting list of 400 000, 0.75% of population ~ 50 million.
2026: 1 600 hospitals, 145 000 beds, apparently fully staffed by heroic immigrants, waiting list of 7 million, 10% of population ~ 68+ million.
And: costing each person £3 500 per year. That means cost to a house hold of two parents and two children = £14 000 … but it’s “free” and nobody could afford private.
Until 1911 National Insurance Act, 75% of population had private health insurance. Government stopped that – why?
NHS workers start at 27 days annual leave, rising to 33 after 10 years. In addition, 28 million days off sick in a workforce of 1.5 million is an average of 19 days each a year (give or take). So, NHS workers, on average, have between 46 and 52 days off every year.
In my mid sixties, I work full time and excluding public holidays, get 20 days annual leave a year. Last year, our compulsory Christmas shut down left me with 17 days holiday to use as I wished. I haven’t had a day of sick for at least 15 years.
Two conclusions – firstly, I must be a complete idiot and secondly, the staff sick rates aren’t a good advertisement for the services the NHS provides.
You forgot that for one category of NHS person, the number of days lost to strikes must be close to doubling those figures.
You’re right! I forgot about the strikes.
Good! The NHS is like Net Zero – intrinsically neither can achieve their stated aims.
Finally the Great Unwashed are waking up to the Net Zero disaster, maybe the pan-bangers will wake up to the perennial disaster the NHS is.
Poor things. All these strikes must be taking their toll.
you fire your best people in the middle of a pandemic while keeping those you can bully and intimidate into taking your vaccine. And then you are left with a bunch of people who are easily intimidated and can’t handle the load. Who would have thought?