Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the need for the provision of increased mental health support to (a) nurses, (b) doctors and (c) other NHS staff (i) during and (ii) after the covid-19 outbreak.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, we recognised there would be a need for additional mental health support for all National Health Service staff. We commissioned NHS England to develop a comprehensive emotional, psychological and practical support package for all NHS staff in addition to existing support that is already available.

NHS England and NHS Improvement launched the support package on 8 April 2020 and it includes a helpline and text service for counselling and support, a dedicated bereavement helpline, and a range of well-being apps. All the support available can be accessed via the following link:

people.nhs.uk/help/

The NHS is continuing to update the support available in this package, in line with the feedback they receive.