Fears thousands of frontline NHS workers across Lincolnshire and Newark have developed PTSD
It's after their critical work during the pandemic
Last updated 3rd Dec 2021
It's feared thousands of frontline NHS workers across Lincolnshire and Newark have experienced post traumatic stress disorder since the start of the pandemic.
It comes as national figures show as many as 230-thousand people could be diagnosed with PTSD.
Estimates suggest there's a rising number of cases, particularly among frontline workers and survivors of severe Covid-19.
A National poll of intensive care staff found 2-in-5 reported symptoms, that's more than twice the rate among military veterans with recent combat experience.
Dr Gail Meadows, from the trust in charge of Grimsby and Scunthorpe hospital, said they have to make difficult choices on a daily basis.
"Who gets the treatment? Who gets the ventilator?
"Decisions that I don’t think any of them ever envisaged that they would have to make. That in itself is quite traumatising.
"There is a certain degree of seeing and experiencing death of patients, unfortunately, in the past, I don’t think ever on this scale.
"It’s nothing like they’ve seen before. That resilience has never been tested in that way.
"They feel like they failed, that they could have done more.
They go into the profession to care for people, and they feel like they haven’t done that.
They feel like they have not done their job, even though the logical part of them tells them they did everything they possibly could.
"When you’ve been going at this for two years, your reserves are low, so it might just be that straw that broke the camels back kind of thing.
"I think that it’s going to be an ongoing problem and I do expect the numbers to rise."