28.03.2024

Mental health of NHS staff placed under further strain as Covid hospitalisations continue to rise

Experts fear the prevalence of psychiatric illnesses among frontline medics is reaching new heights, with the NHS under mounting strain amid a deluge of Covid-19 hospitalisations that has left staff further overwhelmed and drained.

Doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients in overstretched hospitals are increasingly suffering from mental health issues, figures show – as health chiefs warn staff will be pushed to their limit over the next few weeks of the pandemic.

The number of doctors seeking psychiatric help through the British Medical Association has doubled since the pandemic began, The Independent can reveal, while new research shows that nearly half of all NHS staff in intensive care units (ICUs) are likely to meet the threshold for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression.

And in a letter sent to doctors on Tuesday, the UK’s chief medical officers said that the weeks ahead “are likely to be among the most challenging of all our professional lives” and will push staff “to the limits of their physical and mental endurance”.

“Please look after your colleagues – protracted, relentless crises are often much more draining than short intense ones,” the four senior officials wrote.

Dr David Wrigley, wellbeing lead and deputy chair of the BMA, told The Independent that doctors and nurses were being left “physically and mentally scarred” as a result of their experiences, adding that staff “will struggle to get back to the normal way of life” once the pandemic has passed.

Shortages of healthcare workers have exacerbated the mounting mental health crisis. A total of 35,075 people are currently hospitalised with Covid-19 – almost double the peak bed occupancy of the first wave.

Yet as the demand for patient care grows on a daily basis, the NHS has been forced to contend with high levels of Covid-related absences among its workforce. Last week, The Independent revealed that the virus accounted for almost half of all staff absences – 46,378 out of a total of 95,452 – with the figure as high as 58 per cent in London and the southeast.

Rates of anxiety, depression and burnout are soaring among frontline staff amid the intense pressures of caring for critically-ill patients, with a total of 371 doctors accessing the BMA’s helpline in November – up from 251 in January, an increase of 47.8 per cent.

This is the highest figure recorded by the BMA’s counselling service during the Covid-19 crisis. In December 2018, two years earlier, just 132 calls were made to the helpline.

Separate research from King’s College London has meanwhile shown that 45 per cent of doctors and nurses based in ICUs met the threshold for probable PTSD, anxiety or depression during June and July of last year.

From a survey of 709 healthcare workers conducted in nine ICUs in England, more than one in eight respondents (13 per cent) thoughts of suicide or hurting themselves in the previous two weeks.

“The severity of symptoms we identified are highly likely to impair some ICU staffs ability to provide high quality care as well as negatively impacting on their quality of life,” said study lead professor Neil Greenberg.

Dr Ankur Khajuria, an NHS surgeon and lead researcher for the Royal College of Surgeons on the mental impact of Covid-19, said his latest research showed that nurses and female members of staff have shown a greater propensity for anxiety, depression and burnout than their colleagues.

This trend also applies to staff who have been forced to rely on inadequate PPE within their trusts, as well as healthcare workers who are regularly treating Covid patients, he told The Independent.

He described the pressures created by the pandemic and the lack of staff across the NHS as a “perfect storm” which has pushed healthcare workers to the brink.

Those on the frontline have warned resilience among staff is at “breaking point” and that more and more healthcare workers are taking sick leave – or even resigning – due to the unprecedented demands of the Covid-19 crisis.

One senior doctor from North Yorkshire, who asked not to be named, told The Independent it felt “as if we are the musicians aboard the Titanic continuing to play as the ship sinks and chaos reigns all around us”.

“When this all started in March last year, because it was new and unprecedented, everyone’s morale was high,” he said. “They went into fighting spirit. They didn’t realise at the time it’d extend for so long.

“In terms of the pressures, in the first wave it wasn’t as bad as it was now. We had more staff, less absences due to isolation, less burnout. As it’s gone on, the rotas got extended, we have been asked to work extra hours, annual and study leave have been cancelled, junior doctors have been able to rotate.”

Some healthcare workers have reported starting their shifts with “seven or eight” people short due to Covid-19, stress-related illnesses and instructions to self-isolate.

Others have said they’ve been unable to access 30-minute “protected time” sessions for wellbeing support due to shortages of staff on hospital wards.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *