A government funded review has found that NHS staff are suffering from high levels of stress and a breakdown in mental health, due to institutional bullying.

This week it was revealed that absenteeism was costing the NHS over £1.7billion a year, but an independent review of health and well-being, from over 11,000 NHS staff, has shed some light on their reasons for absence.

Health expert and leader of the study, Dr Steve Boorman, said that managers were not taking employee anxieties seriously enough.

"We are particularly concerned at the high levels of psychological and mental health problems that NHS staff suffer from, not least because management attitudes and practices may contribute to this," said Mr Boorman's report.

One member of the survey claimed that a 'lack of top level support' was driving workers out the door, and damaging the mental wellbeing of staff.

Ben Willmott, Senior Public Policy Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), called on NHS trusts to improve management training.

"The CIPD believes that people management skills must be included as a critical element of the development of all professions involved in the public service," said Mr Willmott.

William O'Neill Head of the Litigation Department at Rowlands Solicitors LLP believes: "extra and thorough training be given to management so problems can be recognised and addressed before they arise or become too serious.  It is imperative that those in management be trained to better deal with the stresses faced on a daily basis  by frontline NHS staff."

The report found that NHS staff were absent for 10.7 days a year, compared with the 6.4 in the private sector, and Labour MPs are worried that a focus on the figures, not the reasons, will strengthen a backlash against the NHS currently being formed by opposition members.