DAUK GP co-lead Dr Sarah Jacques warned there’s a burn out ‘epidemic’ in the NHS as she welcomed a new online memorial honouring healthcare workers who have died by suicide.
The memorial wall has been launched by NHS Practitioner Health on National Suicide Memorial Day for Health and Care Workers.
To mark the day, Dr Jacques has also written a powerful blog on her own experience and the pressures faced by healthcare workers on the DAUK Substack.
The wall honours the health and care professionals tragically lost to suicide and provides a space for their lives and contributions to be recognised and remembered.
Wall of Remembrance
Speaking to the BMJ, Dr Jacques said: “It’s incredibly sad that it has to exist at all, but it is really important because I just don’t think the general population thinks about what happens to us [healthcare workers] as people.
“I can understand why to a certain extent you need someone stronger than you that’s going to get you through your difficult period.
“Maybe that’s why it happens. But I think that we have to recognise that all our healthcare professionals go through an awful lot.”
Dr Jacques said the culture in the NHS needed to change, as healthcare professionals struggled with the pressures placed upon them and the fear of getting things wrong.
Toxic culture
She said: “Until we recognise it as a problem, we can’t fix the problem. We work in a toxic culture in the NHS, and something needs to change because more and more of us are feeling like it’s not the place that we should be.
“So many colleagues are reaching out saying they are burning out and are so sad and so scared of all the pressures on them and of getting things wrong. It’s an epidemic, really, and something has to be done about it.”
Read the article in the BMJ in full.
Culture change
In her blog ‘Surviving medicine shouldn’t be a test of resilience’, Dr Jacques reflects on her own experience of burn out and why the culture of medicine needs to change.
She also writes about why surviving a career in healthcare should never be considered an achievement.
Read Dr Sarah Jacques’s blog on the DAUK Substack.
Tickets are still available for DAUK’s joint conference with Doctors For The NHS (DFNHS) on Saturday 10 October at Bedern Hall in York.
In-person attendance is £50 per delegate limited to 50 places. Book your place now.
The conference will also be streamed live to enable colleagues to participate remotely. Online attendance is £25 and places are available to book now.