More than 400,000 working days in the NHS were lost to mental ill-health in the first month of the coronavirus crisis, new figures show.
Figures uncovered by the Labour Party reveal the pressure frontline NHS staff were under as the virus started to take its grip on the country.
The sickness absence rate for NHS staff in England was 4.48% in March, up from 4.08% for the same month in 2019. In total two million sick days were taken in March - with anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illnesses listed as the reason in more than a fifth of cases.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Labour's Shadow Mental Health Minister and an A&E doctor who uncovered the grim statistics, said: “These statistics make for alarming reading. “Of the over two