DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release (2008/0023) issued by The Government News Network on 20
February 2008
New support
service for NHS doctors and dentists to be piloted in London
Health Secretary Alan Johnson today called for all employers to
do more to promote the health and well-being of their staff.
Speaking at the British Heart Foundation's Well at Work
Conference in London, Alan Johnson said;
"Ten years ago, we started the debate on work-life balance.
Increased maternity leave, the introduction of paternity leave,
time off for adoptive parents and the right to request flexible
working have led to a quiet revolution, as more employers
recognise that supporting a healthy work-life balance is essential
to recruiting and retaining talented staff. The next stage is to
incorporate work life balance with work health balance."
In his speech, the Health Secretary set out some key steps that
employers and government must take:
- First, employers taking steps to promote health and well-being
in the workplace;
- Secondly, government must work with employers to improve how we
identify potential health risks - in particular around stress and
mental health - and address these risks;
- And thirdly, government must do more to help those who able to
work, but have been prevented from doing so by health reasons to
get back into the workplace.
The Government also today launched Professor Louis Appleby's
report 'Mental Health and Ill Health in Doctors',
containing recommendations on how the NHS can support doctors to
look after their own mental health.
Alan Johnson said:
"Like many large employers, the NHS too is affected by
sickness absence and lower productivity because of poor health. It
would be a sad irony if we were to neglect the many doctors,
nurses and other health professionals, who do such outstanding
work, often in the face of enormous pressure.
"We will pilot health and wellbeing schemes in a number of
NHS Trusts who are facing the biggest health issues, which have
been developed with the support of the major unions representing
health employees. Employees will get confidential feedback on
their health, alongside personalised advice on healthy lifestyles.
And employers will get anonymised data on the health status of
their workforce that can be used to target actions to improve
health and wellbeing.
"From autumn this year, we are also piloting a support
service in London, for doctors in distress, those who are
struggling with mental illness or addictions. In particular, the
pilot will focus on how we can get better at intervening early, so
minor problems do not escalate into full-blown crises."
Professor Louis Appleby said:
"We know that many doctors are affected by mental ill
health, particularly depression and drug or alcohol addiction and
we also know that many doctors do not for early treatment, if at
all. Many doctors are too worried about confidentiality or the
effect on their career to do what they would tell their patients
to do.
"After the publication of the Daksha Emson Inquiry report I
established a group that worked together to consider what could be
done to make it easier for doctors who become unwell to seek work earlier.
"Although our work concentrated on doctors many of the
recommendations in this report are relevant for other health
workers and it is for local and national organisations to consider
how they can take forward the issues raised."
Recommendations in 'Mental Health and Ill Health in
Doctors' include:
- Doctors who are ill to be treated first and foremost as
patients not colleagues as a doctor's expert knowledge may
not extend to their own condition
- Rules on confidentiality should be strictly observed with
additional safeguards in place to ensure privacy of care such as
location and timing of appointments
- Medical schools and Medical Royal Colleges to encourage the use
of mental health services for doctors in training.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
1) A copy of health Secretary Alan Johnson's speech will be
available on http://www.dh.gov.uk after 3pm
this afternoon.
2) A copy of Professor Louis Appbleby's report 'Mental
Health and Ill Health in Doctors' is available from: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_083066
3) Background
- The CBI estimates that 175 million working days are lost to ill
health every year, with 36 million of these days lost because of
occupational ill health costing UK businesses £13 billion a year.
- Back pain alone costs employers £600 million a year, with
sufferers of persistent back problems on average taking 17 days
off sick per year despite the fact that by taking small,
cost-effective steps, absences can be dramatically reduced.
- Only half of those with back problems who are signed off for
six months or more return to work. Only a quarter of those signed
off for a year or more will return.
- Nine out of ten of those who come on to incapacity benefit want
and expect to come back to work. Many start claiming incapacity
benefit because of back and neck pain, depression or heart and
circulatory problems - serious conditions but not ones that make
long term unemployment inevitable.
- Those who are on incapacity benefit for one year are likely to
stay there for eight. Once they've been there for two years
or more, they are more likely to die or retire than ever work again.
- Some businesses are already offering excellent occupational
health services and support to their employees. By introducing on
site health clinics and health assessments, Parcelforce has
reduced employee absence by a third and job satisfaction is up by
a third too.
- The average worker spends just under an hour travelling to and
from work every day. The British Heart Foundation recommends we do
half an hour of moderate exercise, five times a week. It is
estimated that seven out of ten adults fail to meet this recommendation.
- If every employee were to walk, cycle or jog at least part of
their journey to work each day, we would increase the number of
adults doing enough regular exercise from a desultory three out of
ten to seven out of ten.
- British Gas's back-care workshops has reduced the number
of sick days taken because of back pain by 43 per cent.
- BT's mental wellbeing strategy has not only reduced mental
health related sickness absence by 30 per cent - British Gas also
has a return to work rate of 75 per cent for people absent for
more than six months because of a mental health issue.
- Calderstones NHS Trust, a learning disability trust in
Lancashire had become concerned with results from staff surveys
indicating that staff were stressed at work. As a result they
decided to implement a healthy workplace scheme and now provide a
range of activities such as lunchtime pilates classes, reflexology
sessions,staff walks and are just about to buy two new bikes for
staff use at lunchtimes.
- But 40 per cent of employers still have no systems in place at
all to manage employee health and wellbeing.
4) The NHS Pilot
- Funded by the Department of Health, the doctors and dentist
support service pilot is being taken forward by the National
Clinical Assessment Service (a division of the National Patient
Safety Agency) and will run for three years.
- The PHP aims to protect the safety of our patients and the
health of our health practitioners.
- The pikot schemewill be established for registered medical and
dental practitioners living or working within the London Strategic
Health Authority area with concerns that may relate to:
- a mental health or addiction problem (at any level of severity);
- a physical health problem (where that physical health problem
has raised a performance issue).
[ENDS]