The NSW Health employee survey,which had 81,815 respondents,found 16 per cent claimed to have experienced bullying,12 per cent had experienced threats or physical harm,and 7 per cent had experienced sexual harassment. Nurses and midwives made up 33 per cent of respondents.

The data shows that Hunter New England Local Health District has the highest number of claims for psychological injuries for employees who work in hospitals (122),followed by Northern NSW LHD (101),Health Share NSW (92),South Western Sydney LHD (87),Central Coast LHD (84),Western Sydney LHD (82) and Sydney LHD (74).

A psychological injury can be post-traumatic stress disorder,depression,anxiety or other stress-related illness.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association general secretary Shaye Candish said the union was aware of at least six nurses and midwives who had taken their lives,in circumstances relating to their workplace,in the past 12 months. The union wants a thorough investigation into workplace culture within NSW Health.

“[We are] extremely concerned about the lack of regulator oversight and understanding of workplace suicides in NSW,” Candish said.

“All workers have an equal right to healthy,safe and respectful work,without discrimination and free from violence and aggression. However,nurses and midwives are facing significant threats to their physical and psychological health from role overload,occupational violence and bullying and harassment.”

An investigation by theHerald into thesuicides of two nurses in late 2020 while employed by Cumberland Hospitalalso revealed a toxic culture of bullying. The deaths of the two nurses are in addition to the six the union has been made aware of in the past 12 months.

Cumberland Hospital is the largest mental health facility in NSW and falls within Western Sydney LHD,which has 28 open psychological injury claims,while 54 were finalised in the past two years.

Former midwife Karen Buckley opened up to the masthead about her PTSD diagnosis following a decades-long tenure with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. She is suing NSW Health because she wants to see change. That LHD has 34 open and 39 finalised claims in the past two years.

The new data follows revelations by theHerald last Friday that Ambulance NSW employees are at crisis point,with one in 12 filing or finalising a claim for a psychological injury in the past two years,and paramedics claiming the “guilt of patients dying” because of an overburdened health system is making them sick.

Union delegates will meet Premier Chris Minns and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on Friday in a bid to find a resolution to a protracted pay dispute that isthreatening to collapse the NSW triple zero call system on New Year’s Eve.

Health Minister Ryan Park said the state government wanted to ensure safe staffing levels in emergency departments and had made permanent the positions of 1112 temporary nurses in its first eight months in power.

“We won’t undo 12 years of underinvestment in our health system overnight,but I can assure staff and the community that seismic structural reforms are under way to turn things around,” Park said.

Opposition health spokesman Matt Kean said Labor had promised that health would be its focus and these results since the election showed this had not been the case.

If you or anyone you know needs support,callLifeline on 131 114 orBeyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

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