In 2008, several tragedies caused… UK National Health Service (NHS) established the programme Practitioner health. After several incidents in which health workers were unable to access the assistance they needed, resulting in fatal outcomes, this service was launched, which so far, It has served more than 28,000 professionals. Originally it was only in London, now they are “the service”. The largest in Europe, and perhaps the worldAccording to its CEO, Lucy Warner medical writing.

Doctors are not immune from suffering Mental illness or addiction; They should not suffer in silence, and they should feel confident that they can receive the same Secret service“Better than patients taking care of themselves,” Practitioner Health founder Claire Gerada wrote 15 years ago to defend the existence of this program. Thirteen years later, the independent regulator for health and social care in England, the Care Quality Commission, classified it as “excellent” He praised the service’s accessibility for patients “Appropriate” waiting times.. “Over the years we’ve shown that We save money for the system “Because we don’t lose doctors and we keep patients safe,” Warner said.

The NHS program is available across England and Scotland for all carers who need it Free and confidential. Since the pandemic, they are doing everything Connected, although if someone prefers face-to-face attention, that’s also available. number 150 doctors and 300 therapists. Warner advocates this separation between health centers and hospitals to preserve the confidentiality of health workers. “Health workers like to go more anonymously,” says the CEO. “Although that doesn’t mean they can’t work in a hospital. It depends on whether there is a way to protect the confidentiality of people accessing services.”

Comprehensive doctor-patient care program

Before the NHS decided to create a Practitioner’s Health, it was Metges College in Barcelona He was pioneer in Europe construction Comprehensive doctor-patient care program (Paime) in 1998. It is intended for health professionals with mental health problems and/or addictive behaviors that may interfere with their professional practice. since its inception They have served about 14,000 toilets. The numbers rose exponentially with the pandemic: between 1998 and 2020 they had just 5,300 patients.

Like the English service, the Catalan service, which has spread across Spain with the support of professional associations, stresses the importance of the program’s confidentiality. “Toilets do not use the public system when they have problems. “They don’t want to be identified as health professionals with mental or substance abuse problems,” says Tony Calvo, director of the Galatia Foundation. stigma on Psychological health and the addictionalthough it has improved with pandemic“It remains a barrier for professionals, especially doctors, to seek help,” he adds.

Calvo and Warner point out that anxiety This is the most common reason for health workers to go to these services. “When we launched the Galatia Clinic in 1998, 80 percent of the visits were for addiction and the rest for mental health issues. Now it’s the other way around,” says the Galatia director.

Public and private financing

Although both services have similar goals, they differ in their purpose state financing They received. While the English Language Service is funded entirely by the English and Scottish Governments, the Galatea Foundation has only 60 percent of public funding. The other major contribution is made by schools of different professions in the field of health (nurses, psychologists, social work…). In addition, they have an agreement with University medical organization (OMC) to be able to treat the most serious cases of doctors from the rest of Spain in the same Galatia clinic.

The director of the institution considers this Funding should be through public administrationsas in the programme Practitioner healthAnd it does not depend on private initiative. “Most Mental and addictive problems Today’s health workers are often associated with inadequate performance health system. “It makes sense that the system itself is protecting them,” says Calvo. The best health professionals in the world. “They are well prepared in terms of knowledge, but most of them have been educated and trained to take care of others, not to take care of themselves,” he adds, describing this as a handicap. For the direct, it is “very important” that the professionals are trained in Emotional management, dealing with difficulties… so that they can serve on a mission “as complex as the health of cities”.