NHS and social care staff are facing a mental health crisis as doctors, nurses and care workers face the burnout and trauma of battling Covid-19, MPs have been warned.Staff on the frontlines are struggling to come to terms with what they witnessed during the pandemic, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus were told, as frontline staff shared their fears about levels of preparation for a second wave.
These fears were echoed by Intensive Care Registrar Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden from the Doctor’s Association.
She warned that ministers’ language and conduct had put extra pressure on doctors and that frontline staff needed “reassurance that the same thing that happened in February and March” with chaotic announcements and a lack of willingness to listen to medics “isn’t going to be repeated in the winter”.
She added: “It all comes back to valuing staff and the huge sacrifice people will make to keep people safe over the winter.”
During the pandemic, she said that staff had witnessed difficult events but had done it together – but now they had time to decompress they would have to face without adequate support.
“I think we will see staff take their own lives,” she added.
Read the full article in The Mirror.
