BURNT OUT DOCS QUIT NHS

Almost 50 a week leave ‘rather than risk their lives and watch colleagues die’

BY JOHN SIDDLE

MORE than 2,500 doctors left the NHS last year as exhaustion and “battlefield” conditions took their toll.

Bosses now fear the tidal wave of departures could cripple the health service as staff sickness surges due to the Omicron variant.

NHS England says more than 27,000 medical staff, including consultants, GPs and surgeons, quit between July and September – around 2% of the entire workforce.

The mass exodus is the largest since records began in 2011. Almost 7,000 said they left because they could no longer live a normal life.

The figures were revealed as the UK became the seventh country to pass 150,000 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test, after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru.

A further 313 deaths were reported yesterday, taking the total to 150,057 – with some 146,390 new infections recorded.

Labour MP and A&E doctor Rosena Allin-Khan warned that her colleagues were at “breaking point”. She said: “I’ve been a doctor for over 15 years and have friends on the NHS front line all over the country.

“No matter where they are or what speciality they work in, they all feel exhausted and many are considering leaving.

“It goes against every fibre of their being but for nurses stretched beyond measure, GPs who are understaffed or surgeons who have had to cancel operations, it is becoming too much. “It’s more and more difficult to provide the world-renowned treatment and care they’ve been so proud of their entire careers.”

Dr Allin-Khan said many were leaving rather than face growing personal danger.

She added: “No one signs up for risking their life with incorrect protective equipment, watching teammates die or in intensive care, suffering indescribable fatigue and being many, many team members down, every single shift.

“Up and down the country, going to work feels like entering a battlefield.”

Among the thousands desperate to flee the horror was Kirsty Brewerton, 34, who spent the pandemic on an often-understaffed ward at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire.

No one signs up for risking their life with incorrect protective equipment, watching teammates die... suffering with indescribable fatigue... every single shift. Work feels like entering a battlefield - Labour MP and A&E doctor Rosena Allin-Khan

She quit her staff job so she could take on shifts when she felt able. Kirsty said: “We were experiencing a staffing crisis prior to the pandemic, so the impact now is off the scale.

“We’ve had an exodus of intensive care and theatre staff due to the horrors they faced.

STRESS

“We’ve got staff leaving for admin roles that will pay more for a lot less stress. We’re being asked to do more and more but have nothing left to give. Our best isn’t enough any more.”

Speaking anonymously, a nurse of 24 years told the Sunday Mirror how she had never wanted to leave the profession – until now. She said: “Being a nurse is all I’ve ever wanted but I’m exhausted. I dread going to work as I never know what I’ll have to face. We’re often shortstaffed, so those who are left are barely able to deliver the most basic care.”

The number of hospital staff absent in England due to Covid soared almost 60% on January 2 to 39,142. MPs also revealed this week that the NHS is short of

93,000 workers. The Commons health and social care select committee said the stretched health service was facing an “unquantifiable challenge”.

Chairman and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “Omicron is exacerbating the problem, but we already had a serious staffing crisis with a burnt-out workforce.

“The NHS will be able to deliver little more than day-to-day fire-fighting unless the Government wakes up to the scale of the staffing crisis.” A Government spokesman said there were “record numbers” of doctors and nurses working in the NHS with “over 5,100 more doctors and over 9,700 more nurses compared to last year”. He added: “We are doing all we can to support our health and care staff, including their mental health and wellbeing, with dedicated services like helplines and the wellbeing hub. NHS staff have rightly received a 3% pay rise this year and we are committed to reducing vacancy numbers and growing the workforce.” Scientists warn the NHS faces further pressures with a surge in hospitalisations following mixing at Christmas.

Prof Christina Pagel, of Independent Sage, said: “That is a particular worry for hospitals.”

Experts also warn of another surge now schools are back. More under-18s have been infected in the last three weeks than caught the virus over six months of the 2020 first wave.

Half a million new vaccination appointments for 12 to 15-year-olds were announced yesterday.

In the next two weeks, hundreds of schools will also be visited by vaccination teams offering second jabs. More than 1.4 million pupils – just over half – have already had their first dose.

Mia Ioannides, 14, from London, will be among the teens getting their second jab this month. She had her first vaccination in October and said: “I was a bit anxious because of the needle, but it wasn’t that bad in the end.”

Children are eligible for a second vaccine 12 weeks after their first jab.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Vaccines will protect young people, help keep schools open and protect their friends and families.”