Responding to the decision by NHS leaders to extend the NHS Practitioner Health scheme for a further 12 months, Patricia Marquis, Executive Director of RCN England, said:
"We are relieved to see the funding to NHS Practitioner Health extended for a further 12 months. Questions remain, however, as to how the decision to close the scheme to new registrants was made.
"A wider review of mental health services available to staff is welcome and must look carefully at service provision, ensuring that all health and care workers, no matter their role, have access to suitable bespoke support.
"NHS leaders have a responsibility to get to grips with the drivers of mental health issues amongst their workforce. Working in understaffed services is repeatedly cited by staff who feel burnt out and demoralised from not being able to deliver the level of care they want to. Against the backdrop of severe and sustained pressures on personal finances, staff are struggling more than ever and could do without the NHS pulling the rug from under them."
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