SICKNESS levels among staff at two NHS trusts across Bradford were higher than the Yorkshire and England average, new figures have revealed.

Figures provided by NHS Digital show staff across Yorkshire and Humber took an average of 4.6 per cent of working days off sick in the 12 months to last November, compared to the England average of 4.16 per cent.

At Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the average rate was five per cent, a slight decrease from 5.31 per cent in the previous year.

Bradford District Care Trust’s average rate was 5.24 per cent, compared to 4.91 per cent in 2014/15.

And Airedale NHS Foundation Trust recorded an average of 4.13 per cent, compared to 4.58 per cent in 2014/2015.

The Royal College of Nursing said high levels of sickness were a reflection of the stress that frontline NHS staff are under. 

Karl Norwood, the RCN's regional operations manager, said: “Nurses and health care workers feel undervalued and overstressed, it’s no wonder they are falling ill.

"We know that individual trusts are working to address vacancy rates but until this Government recognises the hard work and dedication of nursing staff with real rewards that pay the bills this situation is only going to worsen.”

A Bradford Hospitals Trust spokesman said: “It is pleasing to see our sickness absence rate has reduced at a time when the NHS is facing unprecedented pressure.

“We have set ourselves ambitious targets for reducing sickness rates and our range of ongoing initiatives include counselling, advice and support services for staff, continued investment in health and wellbeing services and ensuring staff have good access to management information. 

"Reducing the levels of absence and looking after the wellbeing of our staff continues to be a high priority.” 

Sandra Knight, Bradford District Care Trust's director of human resources and organisational development, said it was working hard to reduce sickness rates among its staff.

“It’s crucial that we continue to support staff health and wellbeing. Staff can get a range of free occupational health services including counselling, stress management, fast-track physiotherapy, and a range of wellbeing services, as well as discounts to local gyms to help improve their overall health and wellbeing," she said.

"We are doing a number of things to support staff further including looking at good practice in other trusts to see what other support we can provide and we are also supporting mangers so they can support their staff.”

Nick Parker, director of human resources at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our human resources and employee health and wellbeing teams work hard to support staff to stay well and resilient.

"Our emphasis is on supporting managers to help members of their teams get back to work quickly when they do fall ill. We are pleased to see that our sickness levels are continuing to reduce and were below four per cent in February.”