General Practitioners: Mental Illness

(asked on 6th September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of GPs experiencing mental health illness in each of the last six years.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

No formal annual assessment of the trends in the numbers of general practitioners (GPs) experiencing mental health illness in each of the last six years has been made.

In January 2017, NHS England launched the GP Health Service in recognition of GPs reporting they were experiencing stress and mental illness.

The NHS GP Health Service is a nationwide, free confidential NHS service for GPs and GP trainees in England. The service can help doctors with issues relating to a mental health concern, including stress or depression, or an addiction problem, particularly where these might affect work.

Since its launch, over 1,500 GPs have accessed the service, with users consisting of a mixture of some existing patients from the London practitioner health programme and new users.

A 2018 survey of users of the service found that (of those that responded):

- 78% of GPs stated the service had a positive impact on their ability to work or train; and

- 93% of GPs are likely to recommend the service.

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