New figures have revealed almost 170,000 staff hours were lost to mental health absences in Scotland's ambulance service in the space of a year. Figures obtained through a freedom of information request show that between July 2021 and June this year there were 169,574 staff absences.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton accused the SNP government of not addressing the mental health problem in the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) and said emergency service workers are "sacrificing their own health".
The number of absences has soared by 68,559 hours from the year prior where figures equated to 101,015 hours. Paramedics, technicians, care assistants and accident and emergency team leaders within the SAS are included in the data if they have an absence due to anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illness.
