\n New figures show an average of 132 employees at the East of England Ambulance Service are taking mental health-related leave each month, up from just 37 in 2015.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trust, which was recently ranked the worst performing in an NHS league table, has faced growing scrutiny over staff welfare.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n At the time, union bosses said morale was at “rock bottom” and the new figures will raise concerns about a growing sickness culture at the organisation and the impact that might have on its response times and care for patients.\n<\/p>\n
\n The data, which was obtained via a freedom of information request, shows that on average last year 121 members of staff were off each month for mental health reasons.\n<\/p>\n
\n That figure rose to 137 in the first five months of 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n The organisation says that its headcount has grown by around 1,000 since 2015, but its monthly mental health absence rates have outstripped that growth, rising from 0.9pc of the workforce a decade ago to 2.64pc this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The statistics also paint a wider picture beyond the mental health of staff.\n<\/p>\n
\n They show that reports of physical assaults on paramedics have more than doubled since 2015, rising from 191 to 412 incidents in 2024.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, staff are leaving earlier than ever – with annual resignations more than doubling since 2016 and the average length of service dropping from 10.7 years to 8.6.\n<\/p>\n
\n Caroline Hennessy, UNISON Eastern head of health, said: \u201cAmbulance staff face huge personal challenges every day at work.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cToo often staff are expected to simply absorb whatever\u2019s thrown at them, but without proper support from managers, workers just can\u2019t carry on.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ambulance staff are also facing a rise in physical assaults(Image: East of England Ambulance Service \/ File photo)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAnd when stress and burnout set in, the situation spirals. Experienced staff quit, leaving bigger gaps and more stress for those remaining.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe trust must do more to protect the health and wellbeing of staff doing such high-stakes work.”\n<\/p>\n
\n EEAST said they are investing \u201csignificantly\u201d in wellbeing services.\n<\/p>\n
\n New measures being implemented include a dedicated support hub, 24-hour crisis line, trauma therapists and a new support app.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman for the trust said: \u201cWe take staff wellbeing very seriously and offer a wide range of support.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince 2015, our workforce has grown by around 1,000 people. As awareness of mental health has increased, we\u2019ve worked hard to remove stigma and encourage staff to seek help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New figures show an average of 132 employees at the East of England Ambulance Service are taking mental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-238263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}