The news came when UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said authorities were considering putting patients in recovery of Covid-19 in hotels as a “safety plan”, such is the intense pressure being put on hospitals for the latest wave of infections.
The UK marked its second deadliest day since the start of the pandemic on Tuesday, with 1,243 new coronavirus-related deaths. It also reported 45,533 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 3,117,882.
England entered its third national blockade last week as it struggles to cope with the spread of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus. The UK government and senior health officials have warned that many hospitals are on the verge of being overwhelmed.
At a press conference on Monday, Hancock said the variant “put the NHS [National Health Service] under very significant pressure, ”with Covid-related hospital admissions 22% higher than the previous week.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was published Wednesday by researchers at King’s College London. He analyzed responses to an anonymous online survey in June and July of more than 700 doctors and nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs) at six different hospitals.
Although nearly 60% of respondents reported good well-being, the study found that nearly half of ICU staff reported symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis of PTSD, severe depression or anxiety, or drinking problems. .
Nearly one in seven (13.4%) of ICU staff frequently reported thinking they would be better off dead or injured in the past two weeks.
About 45% of respondents met the probable clinical significance threshold in at least one of these measures: severe depression (6.3%), PTSD (39.5%), severe anxiety (11.3%), or problems to drink (7.2%).
The researchers found that nursing staff are more likely to report higher levels of anxiety than doctors or other clinical professionals. Almost half of those who completed the surveys were nurses and just over 40% were doctors. The researchers found that doctors constantly reported better health than nurses.
The study, led by Neil Greenberg of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, was published online in the journal Occupational Medicine.
“Our results highlight the potential profound impact Covid-19 has had on the mental health of UK frontline staff,” the study says.
“(The) probable rate of PTSD we report was about nine times that found in the general population and more than double that of recent combat veterans.”
Researchers point out that ICU staff have experienced many stressful factors during the pandemic, including staff shortages, fears of contracting the virus and endangering their loved ones, concerns about the lack of protective equipment personal and distress related to the loss of patients ’lives despite their best efforts. efforts.
The results of the study will only increase concern about the stress placed on NHS staff in England as they struggle to treat a record number of patients with Covid-19.
Hancock said Wednesday that introducing Covid patients to hotels was being considered a “security plan” by the country’s authorities, but that “obviously that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
“We’re considering all the options, it’s not something we’re actively implementing. But I’d say it would only happen if that were clinically correct for any individual patient,” Hancock told the BBC.
“There is a lag from the number of cases to the number of people presenting to the hospital. Therefore, we know that these pressures on the NHS will continue to increase over the coming weeks,” he added.
Hancock said the Nightingale Temporary Hospitals set up by NHS England in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic were there as an alternative to hospitals.
Asked what kind of patients would be sent to hotels, the health secretary said “it would be for discharged patients or patients who have been hospitalized, who no longer need full hospital treatment but are not ready to go home. “.
London and the south-east of England are among the areas most affected by the new variant, although it has now spread across the UK and been detected in at least 50 more countries, including heavily affected Ireland. .
London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Friday declared a “major incident” in the English capital “due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus … and the rise in Covid-19 cases in hospitals, which has left the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed. “
The UK government is fixing its hopes of controlling the crisis in a massive vaccination action against Covid-19.
“So far across the UK, we have given 2.6 million doses to 2.3 million people and protected more people with vaccines than all European countries,” Hancock said at a Downing press conference Street Monday.
Hancock said the UK was on track to deliver a first dose of the vaccine to “all first four groups”, accounting for 88% of Covid-19-related deaths on 15 February. These groups include all resident and personal care centers for the elderly, all those aged 70 and over and front-line health and social care workers.
Two-fifths of those over the age of eighty and nearly a quarter of the residents of the larger care home had received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of Monday, Hancock said.
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau, Duarte Mendonca and Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.