Description: A blog from the perspective of a socialist mental health professional on the social causes of our mental health crisis.
Home Home A blog from the perspective of a socialist mental health professional on the social causes of our mental health crisis.
The NHS crisis has reached truly unprecedented levels, 7.21 million people are waiting for treatment, with 231 times the number of people waiting over a year for treatment compared to January 2020. We have heard horror stories of ambulances being unable to attend to the dying, with a record number of hospital trusts declaring critical incidents in 2022 .
Unbearable conditions, on top of dramatically falling real wages, have led to an extreme staff retention crisis. September 2022 saw a record average of 9.7% unfilled positions across the NHS, a figure almost double that of March 2021. Poor mental health, caused by staff burnout is overwhelmingly the greatest reason for leaving .