The high suicide rate among healthcare workers is an “outrage”, writer and comedian Adam Kay has warned.
Kay – a former junior doctor and the author of the bestselling book This is Going to Hurt – has written extensively about the mental health toll of working in a hospital.
In an exclusive interview with the Big Issue for our Letter to My Younger Self feature, the Bafta-winning writer said he had become “obsessed” with highlighting the inadequate mental health support available to NHS staff.
“This topic of suicide among healthcare staff, the numbers are an outrage, and so little is being done to move the needle on it,” he said.
In 2020 – the most recent year for which data exists – 72 medical professionals took their own lives. In 2022, 360 nurses attempted suicide.
Doctors are taught to hide their emotions, despite immense workloads and limited resources.