Tom Gordon

NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted the Scottish NHS is an “incredibly difficult place for staff to work” after new figures showed a 50 per cent rise in stress-related absences in the last four years.

The First Minister said it had always been tough to work in the health service, but with demand steadily rising “it is even more the case now”.

The comments came as Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard revealed freedom of information requests to health boards about the scale of stress-related absences.

He told MSPs there were 3.5million hours of staff sickness due to stress, depression or other psychiatric illness in 2018/19, accounting for 24.7 per cent of all sickness absence last year.

In 2014/15, the same issue accounted for 16.3% of all absence.

Mr Leonard reminded Ms Sturgeon the Auditor General for Scotland had last week warned the NHS in Scotland was “running hot”, with intense pressure on staff and strained budgets.

He said: “Over the past year, professional bodies and trade unions have raised concerns that the NHS workforce is under growing pressure and faces staff burn-out.

“Last year in Scotland, 3.5m working hours in the NHS were lost to sickness absence caused by stress or anxiety or for mental health-related reasons.

“That is a quarter of all sickness hours lost and a rise of more than 50 per cent in four years. “Those workers are being let down. What does the First Minister intend to do about it?”

Ms Sturgeon said sickness levels fluctuated in the NHS but had been “relatively stable in recent years”.

She said: “More people work in our NHS now than did when this Government took office.

“The Audit Scotland report also confirmed that, over the past 10 years, the health budget has increased in real terms by six per cent. Most of that increase has been in the past five years.

“In tough times for our NHS - in that regard, the Scottish NHS is not unique - we will continue to support our front-line staff in the essential work that they do.”

She added: “The NHS is an incredibly difficult place for staff to work in. I think that that has always been the case, but, as we see demand in our NHS rising, it is even more the case now.”

Mr Leonard said NHS staff were being “badly let down” by the Government.

He said: “In the end, patients suffer, too: the treatment time guarantee has been breached more than 230,000 times; last year, delayed discharges from hospital were up by 6%; and 20,000 more people were left waiting in accident and emergency for more than four hours - that is up by 17 per cent.

“The SNP has been running Scotland’s health service for more than 12 years. Today, the human cost for patients and NHS staff is plain to see. That health crisis has blown up on the First Minister’s watch. It is her responsibility.”

Switching into election mode, he said the NHS needed the £70bn of public service investment promised by a Labour government, not independence and cuts.

Ms Sturgeon said if Labour had won the 2016 Holyrood election, its spending plans meant the NHS would be £758m worse off in this financial year alone.

She said: “In a few weeks, people in Scotland will have the opportunity to choose how to vote, and I look forward to them making that choice. It is only because there is an SNP Government in Scotland today that the NHS in Scotland is the best performing anywhere in the UK.”

Labour MSP Daniel Johnson, who recently revealed he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as an adult, asked why NHS Grampian refused to assess adults for the condition, contrary to national policy.

He said: “For me, diagnosis was a vital first step in transforming my life and that of my family. Does she agree that nobody should be denied that opportunity through being denied an assessment for ADHD or autism as an adult?”

Ms Sturgeon replied: “The short answer is that I agree with all Daniel Johnson’s points. I will make sure that NHS Grampian is contacted. I agree diagnosis is vital to allowing people to take the steps that they need to take and have the support and treatment that they need.”

Lothians Labour MSP Neil Findlay raised the case of a female constituent who was unable to get an urgent brain operation for “excruciating nerve pain” because of the delayed opening of the new Edinburgh Sick Kids hospital and associated neurological centre.

He said: “That woman cannot work or drive. She is reliant on benefits, and she lives taking more than 48 tablets a day. That is the human face of the scandal at the sick kids hospital.”

Mr Sturgeon said Health Secretary Jeane Freeman would look into the case.

She said the government did not deny the challenges in the NHS, but would invest in the services and staff required.