Work-related ill health; carnage in the Public Sector during 2022

The HSE has just released statistics for work related ill- health in the UK for the year end March 2022.

There are 722,999 workers suffering from a new case of work-related illness, this gives a total of 1.8 million sufferers (new and long-standing cases).

30.8 million working days have been lost in 2021/22, this is higher than the rate of 2018/19 and it is estimated that it will increase further.

The majority, 51% of cases, are related to workplace stress, depression or anxiety, with the highest incidence in the Public Administrative and Defence sectors, closely followed by Health, Social Care and Education.

As we are all aware, the Covid pandemic has had a considerable impact on work related ill health. 123,000 workers are suffering from the long-term effects of the Covid virus and 40% of these cases are in the Health and Social Care sector.

Work related ill-health doesn’t just affect the individual, it affects their families, the employer’s budget, the NHS and the public purse.

Employers have a legal duty to protect employee health, this includes supporting good mental health in the workplace.

Occupational Health can help employers manage mental health in the workplace; prevention and early support is key to maintaining well-being in a demanding work environment, work should not make you ill.

Occupational Health is about:

Keeping people at work

Stopping people being made ill by their work

Protecting lives before things go wrong

Improving working lives

An effective OH service integrated into your policies enables us to engage with workers and managers by providing health surveillance, fitness for work assessments, signposting to the right help to support well-being and managing sickness absence.