Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement made by the Chief Executive of NHS England at the International Practitioner Health Summit 2018, if he has plans to extend the Practitioner Health Programme to (a) nurses, (b) midwives, (c) other NHS practitioners and (d) professionals treating NHS patients.
Answered by Steve Barclay
There are no plans to include nurses, midwives, other NHS practitioners or professionals treating National Health Service patients in the roll out of the Practitioner Health Programme, which is a free, confidential service for doctors and dentists who have mental health and/or addiction concerns, or physical health issues that may be affecting their mental health or ability to work. More information on the announcement can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2018/10/nhs-to-prioritise-doctors-mental-health/
NHS Improvement’s health and wellbeing collaborative involves 73 trusts which will identify and roll out 10 high impact actions as part of the NHS commitment to reducing NHS staff sickness absence by 1% by 2020 and to the public services average by 2022.
Both the Framework and NHS Improvement health and wellbeing collaborative embed ‘Thriving at Work’ principles which are aimed at improving workplace mental health.
NHS England has an incentive programme running to 2019 which encourages trusts to invest in innovative new services to support their staff health and wellbeing. To trigger the incentive payments, trusts have to demonstrate a 5% improvement or 75% positive response to two of three NHS Staff Survey questions on health and wellbeing.
Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) dentists have died by suicide in each of the last five years; what the average age of such doctors and dentists was when they died; and whether he has plans to create a national service to help health professionals suffering from mental illnesses.
Answered by Steve Barclay
This information is not collected centrally.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does collect some data relating to the number of suicides registered in England and Wales between 2013 – 2017 where the occupation was recorded as medical practitioner or dental practitioner on the death certificate.
This information is contained in the following tables.
Number of deaths1 | ||
Registration year | England | Wales |
2013 | 20 | : |
2014 | 18 | 3 |
2015 | 14 | : |
2016 | 13 | : |
2017 | 18 | : |
Total | 83 | 6 |
Number of suicides in England and Wales for dental practitioners, deaths registered between 2013 and 2017.
Number of deaths2 | ||
Registration year | England | Wales |
2013 | 3 | : |
2014 | 3 | : |
2015 | 3 | : |
2016 | 7 | : |
2017 | 3 | : |
Total | 19 | 3 |
Notes:
1For disclosure control, any cells where the count of deaths is lower than three have been supressed and marked “:” to show this.
2Figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each calendar year. Due to the length of time it takes to complete a coroner’s inquest, it can take months or even years for a suicide to be registered. More details can be found in the ‘suicide registrations in the UK’ statistical bulletin at the following link:
Data on the average age of death by each occupation is not recorded by the ONS. Deaths registered in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, indicate the average age of death by suicide was 45 years for medical practitioners and 49 years for dental practitioners.
Number of suicides in England and Wales for medical practitioners, deaths registered between 2013 and 2017.
Due to small numbers of deaths, ONS are unable to provide the average age of death by year for each occupation. When looking at deaths registered in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, the average age of death was 45 years for medical practitioners and 49 years for dental practitioners. Data on occupation is restricted to those aged 20 to 64 years, those of working age; this impacts the average age of death, something that should be interpreted with caution. The average age of death does not necessarily reflect the age at which people in these professions are at highest risk of suicide, and is not comparable with statistics produced by the ONS on life expectancy in the general population.
The health and wellbeing of all our National Health Service staff is a top priority and, in July, NHS England published its NHS staff health and wellbeing framework which complements our recent announcement of quicker access to mental health services such as counselling and talking therapies for staff who need them. This will help deliver our manifesto promise to “introduce new services for employees to give them the support they need including quicker access to mental health services”.
This builds on NHS England’s “Commissioning for Quality and Innovation” incentive scheme encouraging employers to invest in services to help staff stay physically and mentally fit and well and NHS Improvement’s ongoing work in collaboration with the NHS to improve staff health and wellbeing and reduce sickness absence.
In 2017, NHS England launched the NHS GP Health service, a nationally-funded confidential service which specialises in supporting general practitioners (GPs) and trainee GPs experiencing mental ill health and which has already helped more than 1,500 GPs.