Top medic warns that suicide rate among UK doctors is rising

THE suicide rate among UK doctors is rising, a leading medic has claimed.

Female doctors have up to four times the risk of suicide compared to people in the general population, Dr Clare Gerada, medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), said.

She told BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that between 201115, 430 doctors took their own lives in England. Dr Gerada described the issue of doctors suffering from mental health problems as “the last taboo in the NHS” and said one of the biggest causes is the effect of public complaints – something she said can “shatter their sense of self”.

She added: “Doctors are at an incredibly high risk for mental illness. Female doctors have up to four times the risk of suicide in comparison to people in the (general) population.”

Dr Gerada, a former chairwoman of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said PHP is the only confidential service that offers doctors assessments, treatment and case-management for all mental health problems.

In 10 years it has helped more than 5,000 doctors, of whom slightly over two-thirds were women. The average age has dropped from 51.6 years to 38.9. But doctors can only self-refer if they work in London.

Other doctors can only access the service via their clinical commissioning group, thereby losing anonymity.

Dr Gerada said the lack of confidentiality is a barrier and she wants NHS England to extend the London approach to any doctor who needs support.

Consultant anaesthetist Richard Harding took his own life last year after a serious complaint had been made about him to the General Medical Council. He was eventually cleared but the process took five months.

His widow Kate Harding, a GP, told the programme it brought back depression he’d not had for years.

“The effects are more long-lasting than you’d expect,” she said.