SIXTY-three Wye Valley NHS Trust staff are currently listed as long-term sick with the trust’s overall sickness rate on the rise.

Stress and anxiety are identified as the biggest causes of sick leave across the trust which has already increased the extent of HR intervention to support managers over attendance.

Figures put to the trust board show the October sickness absence rate - expressed as a percentage of time lost -  increased to 4.64 per cent with all service units reporting rises above their targets.

As categories, long term, medium term and short term sickness were all up by over two per cent.

The total cost of staff sickness over October topped £238,834.

September, by contrast, had an overall sickness rate of 3.92 per cent and a cost of £193,336.

Long term sickness rose significantly in October to 63 staff  from 45 the previous month.

The board was told all cases are being “actively managed” with 19 of the 63 having return  to work dates planned.

Short term absence has increased to 2.57 per cent from 2.51 per cent in September.

The main increases in sickness absence were for gastrointestinal problems, colds and flu.

So far, the trust has vaccinated well over half its staff against flu.

Since spring, the trust has increased the level of HR intervention to support managers to manage attendance.

A new sickness policy will start in January backed by a trust wide health and well being strategy.

With stress and anxiety identified as the biggest reason for sickness, planned interventions include:

Psychological/counselling support.

Direct/self-referral to physiotherapy services.

A “resilience training” workshop.

Case management meetings with HR/line managers/occupational health.

Workshops for managers on the new policy