For all the clapping we did, after the pandemic, healthcare workers, who had to bear the brunt of it, showed extreme signs of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. In June and July 2020, 45% of critical care workers, including doctors and nurses, reported having symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of severe depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
To address this, in 2020, the government invested £15 million to set up 40 mental health service hubs for the healthcare workers who worked on the frontline during the pandemic. The Mental Health Director of the NHS, Claire Murdough stated that “it is crucial that the NHS staff working tirelessly to protect the health of the nation throughout this pandemic are given the support they deserve.” Yet the funding for those ended on March 31 of this year, placing high-risk NHS staff at even greater risk of exacerbating their mental health symptoms.
In a study done by Neil Greenberg, Professor at King’s College London, one-in-seven intensive care unit staff and one-in-five nurses expressed thoughts of suicide or self-harm. And yet data from 11 of the 40 hubs showed 2,800 staff will be left without rapid access to mental health services after March, even though the demand for the hubs has risen by 72% between October 2021 and 2022.
This discontinuation of funding has left thousands of healthcare workers without adequate access to mental health services. The mental health hubs helped reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD and contributed to the overall wellbeing of NHS staff. Indeed, the British Psychological Society (BPS) and Association of Clinical Psychologists – UK (ACP-UK) launched the campaign, #FundNHSHubs, to encourage the government to continue funding for a minimum of one extra year to allow the hubs to keep supporting NHS staff and allow them time to find an alternative treatment.
The closing of the mental health hubs has now resulted in NHS staff being forced to go through the standard NHS mental health system, where it can take over a year to receive just the initial appointment. This could lead to NHS staff taking more sick leave and will exacerbate suicide risk and burnout. In January 2023, anxiety, depression and other psychiatric illnesses were the most reported reasons for sickness absence in the NHS. Over 520,470 full-time equivalent days were lost, and mental health-related absences rose as a percentage of all absences from 20.8% in December 2022 to 23.3% in January 2023. Indeed, research from the British Medical Journal in 2021-22 estimated £8.9 billion was spent on temporary staffing because of sickness absence. Therefore, cutting the funding to the mental health hubs is likely to be more expensive – costing as much as £213 million if the increase in mental health-related absences between 2022 and 2023 is due to the lack of mental health hubs – than funding them. More than that, the cut in funding could ultimately put staff and patient care in jeopardy.
Access to timely mental health resources resulted in more NHS staff returning to work, effectively alleviating the strain on the healthcare worker shortage. To save money and improve the quality of service, the government should continue funding extra mental health resources for healthcare professionals. Mental health support for healthcare workers should not just be seen as a short-term solution to the effects of the pandemic, but as a necessity to ensure the continued sustainability and efficiency of the NHS and the wellbeing of its staff.
Taylor Ross is a Research Assistant at Bright Blue. Views expressed in this article are those of the author, not necessarily those of Bright Blue. [Image: Nicolas J Leclercq]
