A TaxPayers' Alliance investigation revealed that 1,311,994 NHS nurses have taken 32,407,168 sick days between 2021-25. Of these sick days, 7,985,367 were taken off by 176,035 nurses, citing mental health as the reason for calling in sick.
Speaking to the Times, which published these findings, our investigations campaign manager, Joanna Marchong said:
"Patients will be rightfully worried by the growing number of nurses taking sick days.
"NHS nurses are potentially going on strike again after turbulent years, staff shortages and doctor strikes. Whilst facing all these issues a colter of absenteeism has arisen.
"NHS reforms are on the table, and if we want to see an effective health care system, we need to make sure nurses turn up"
Read the full story here.