STAFF sickness cost a health trust more than £4m in lost work days last year.

The financial toll of employee absence within the Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust – the organisation that runs community hospitals and mental health services in the county – was between £350,000 and £425,000 a month during 2015/16.

Some 20 per cent of those off sick were said to be suffering from anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illnesses.

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The price tag for sick days occurred during a financially challenging year for the trust which recorded an end of year deficit of £9.1m.

A spokesman for the trust said the average sickness rate was lower than some comparable trusts elsewhere in the country.

"The health and wellbeing of our staff is a priority for our trust.

"As a trust our sickness and absence rates peaked in November 2014, reaching 5.68 per cent.

"Since then this rate has been steadily declining and since January 2015 has been consistently below five per cent.

"We always aim to prioritise supporting our staff and the decline since November 2014 highlights this.

"Through our managers and team leaders we endeavour for staff sickness and absence rates to continually improve going forward, as reflected in our strategic plan."

The organisation employs more than 4,000 staff and its operations include Dane Garth and the Dova mental health units at Furness General Hospital and Millom Community Hospital.

It also runs the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service, based at Fairfield Lane, in Barrow, as well as the county's school nurse and health visitor teams.

It has now introduced a scheme to promote staff wellbeing after employing a dedicated mindfulness co-ordinator and providing early access to occupational health advice and mindfulness sessions for staff.

The trust's annual report states the monthly level of sickness actually reduced over the 12 months in question from 4.68 per cent at the end of April 2015 to 4.37 per cent in March this year.

Bosses had set an internal sickness rate target of four per cent for the year.

Staff working in clinical roles were said to be more likely to take time off sick than those in support or administrative posts.

And the majority of days lost were said to be attributable to employees signed off long term.

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