STRESSED out hospital staff took nearly 9,000 hours off sick in a month, it has been revealed.

A report has revealed the main reasons for staff sickness rates at the trust running Colchester Hospital are anxiety, stress and depression.

Workers, including surgeons, also took time off themselves for their own aches and pains.

The sickness rate for March increased in the trust’s logistics division, whose staff include anyone from receptionists to project managers and those in the muscular skeletal and specialist surgery departments.

A report said: “Despite a fall in the sickness rate, the trust still lost 8,863 working hours (from a potential 257,704) at a cost of cost £700,000.

“The primary reason remains anxiety, stress and depression followed by muscular skeletal problems.

“The logistics division has the highest sickness rate pro rata at 4.7 per cent, and in line with the trust, the main cause is anxiety, stress and depression.”

The £700,000 figure related to the actual working hours lost, not cash spent on agency workers to cover absences.

Retired GP Dr Laurel Spooner, whose trainee doctor daughter Sophie committed suicide after suffering bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression, said she was not surprised by the report.

“It is part of a national trend. It is sad to say Colchester Hospital is now going to attend to the fact the area the doctors can socialise in is inadequate and a new one is planned for October.

“There are also cuts in occupational health and certainly improvements in human resources and filling in vacancies would be of benefit.

“It is known there is a particular problem with locum doctors because they don’t have as good a support structure and they move around different hospitals and are more at risk of stress.

“There are also the long hours and shift changes.”

Dr Spooner, from Colchester, and founder of Tollgate Clinic, has been working with health practitioners to raise mental health awareness in the field, following Sophie’s death in 2017.

Dr Spooner said the Government has recommended all hospital trust boards should have a member who is a mental health representative and consultants in our area have recently formed a support network.

A hospital trust spokesperson said: “We ask all our staff when they return to work whether their stress is work-related and in some cases it is, in others it is not.

“Our wellbeing programme looks at how we support our staff in maintaining their physical and mental health.

“This includes our occupational health team of nurses and doctors who provide our staff with quick access to advice and treatment.

“We have a staff counselling service and work closely with Suffolk Mind who are providing training sessions on managing the pressures working in the NHS, alongside daily life, can bring.”

Sickness rates overall at the trust, fell in March to 3.4 per cent, compared to 4.1 per cent in February.

But the report said the rate was still just below the national NHS sickness benchmark of 4.5 per cent.

A Unison spokesman added: "With so few staff, it’s no wonder the pressures of working in the NHS are making so many health workers ill.

“The combination of rising stress levels along with bullying and bad behaviour from managers and colleagues shows the pressure is really getting to staff. 

"It’s a testament to them that they keep going, but the situation simply isn’t sustainable.

“Hospital bosses and ministers must get to grip with the pressing issue of chronic understaffing. or the health service’s problems will go from bad to worse.”

A national report has just revealed more than 300 nurses killed themselves over the seven-year period from 2011 to 2017. There were 32 suicides recorded in 2017 and one nurse committing suicide every week in 2014.

The Royal College of Nursing said conditions were getting worse and a national shortage of 40,000 nurses was leaving staff overworked.