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Press release: NHS Employers targets stress in the workplace13 May 2005 NHS Employers today launches a national campaign to help combat stress in the workplace. At his keynote speech at the HR in the NHS conference, Steve Barnett, director of NHS Employers, said more needs to be done to combat the stress levels suffered by NHS staff in the workplace and the impact of stress-related sickness absence on the delivery of patient care. He outlined a campaign to help employers to target signs of stress in their employees and to take steps to reduce them. Steve said: 'The impact of stress on employees who work in the NHS is vastly underestimated. Work-related stress is responsible for 30% of sickness absence in the NHS, costing the service £300-400 million per year. When you extrapolate that across the 600 trusts in the country and take into account that the greatest impact of stress is in the hospital sector, that's a significant financial burden for each trust. That's money that could be much better invested in patient care. We know that employees feel stress in the workplace - the Healthcare Commission's staff survey results this year showed that 36% of staff suffered from work pressure in the past year. And we know that managers need more information and support to deal with employee stress in their trusts. Our campaign will help to create an open culture in the NHS where the signs and symptoms of stress are tackled proactively.' NHS Employers pledges the following:
Notes for editors
Contact detailsThe press office provides a comprehensive service to keep journalists informed about the work of NHS Employers. If you have a media enquiry, please contact the press office team:
For out of hours media enquiries, please contact the duty press officer on 07880 500726. For all non-journalist enquiries regarding the stress campaign please contact Mandy Wallace on 020 7074 3381 or Zahra Pettican on 020 7074 3254. Last reviewed 22 Nov 2005 |
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