IT’S not difficult to understand why stress should be a significant factor in sickness absence among health workers.

Nurses and doctors are trained professionals but they are also human beings who have to deal with particularly traumatic and emotionally-draining situations, day after day.

Although counselling might not be the answer for everyone, it has grown enormously in recent years and has a proven track record in helping many people to cope with stress.

The initiative shown by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is an excellent one which hopefully will pay for itself in reducing sickness levels and the enormous cost of hiring agency staff to cover absences.

But questions still need to be asked about why the trust’s own target for sickness days has been exceeded by 70%.

Targets should be realistic and set to be met.

Traditionally, public sector sickness levels have been higher than those in industry but when the national average for hospitals is 4% we need to know why East Lancashire’s should be significantly above this.

Former trust chairman Ian Woolley says any absence level over 5% is “ludicrous” and blames “bad management”.

This level shows clearly that something is wrong with the way our hospitals have been run and it needs to be firmly addressed.