NHS trusts are failing to fully support staff's health and wellbeing, with just over half (57%) having a mental wellbeing policy in place, research reveals.
The research also revealed NHS trusts were still failing to support staff obesity, although some progress has been made.
With mental health one of the leading causes of long-term sickness absence among the NHS workforce, new results from the Health and Work Development Unit (HWDU) at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found that almost a quarter (24%) of NHS trusts did not monitor their staff's mental wellbeing at all.
The study, Implementing NICE public health guidance for the workplace: a national organisational audit of NHS trusts in England, included 73% of NHS trusts in England, amounting to 862,365 NHS staff in the country.
NHS workers in England took an average of 9.5 working days off sick in 2012-2013, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Compared to data collected in 2010, trusts have improved on addressing obesity in the workplace with more than twice as many trusts with a plan or policy to tackle obesity in place. However, this only represented 28% of trusts, climbing from 13% in 2010.
Food choices for night staff were particularly limited, according to the findings, with just 27% of trusts offering night workers the same or similar healthy food options as day workers.
Encouragingly, three-quarters (75%) of trusts had an organisation-wide plan to support staff to quit smoking. Yet the findings demonstrated that many employers were unwilling to invest extra time and money with 38% of trusts saying they did not allow staff to attend stop smoking services during working hours without loss of pay.
HWDU clinical director Dr Siân Williams said that while the results showed acknowledgement of the importance of staff health and wellbeing, there was "wide variation" and progress was "slow".
"This is concerning given the evidence that NHS staff health influences patient outcomes, for example infection rates. There is room for improvement to ensure that organisations are providing the best support for their staff," she said.
"The National Institute of Health and Care excellence (NICE) guidance that we measured against is evidence-based, and so is a very good place to start for NHS trusts' developing staff health and wellbeing strategies. In fact, I would urge all trusts to familiarise themselves with it, because we anticipate further guidance from NICE about public health and the workplace next year."
