North West hospitals join Clinical Leaders Network mental resilience programme

A group of frontline hospitals in the North West of England have become the first in the country to answer the call to action raised by the Clinical Leaders Network (CLN) around the potentially long-term impacts of Coronavirus on the mental health and wellbeing of NHS staff.

The CLN – which includes doctors, academics, paramedics, Professor Clare Gerada MBE, the former Chair of the Royal College of GPs, and the former Chief Nursing Officer for England, Professor Jane Cumming – issued warnings earlier this year about the possible impact of the pandemic on the mental health of frontline and other workers across the country.

It prompted hospital trusts in the North West to respond and Dr Andrew Coley, CLN’s Chief Clinical Officer, said: “It’s heartening to see that such an important part of our health care system is taking action now.

“Lessons learned from past outbreaks and evidence from around the world shows us we can expect notable increases in mental ill health and related issues for frontline workers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 “While preventing the spread of Covid-19 is still a public health priority we’re saying that this emergency will also leave a mental health legacy in its wake, a legacy that could inflict a damaging toll on NHS and other frontline staff as well as the public at large.”

The hospital trusts that will be part of the NHS CLN Enhancing Mental Health Resilience Programme include the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This will help hospital senior management, clinicians and other health and social care professionals to start preparing now to ensure robust plans are in place to both prevent and deal with the threat of pandemic-related mental ill health.

This programme will run for 12 months and be evaluated with the help of Manchester University with the ultimate evaluation being passed to NHS England and the Cabinet Office to help inform future National and international Pandemic Planning.

You can read the CLN’s full call to action: “Enhancing mental health resilience and anticipating treatment provision of mental health conditions for frontline Healthcare Workers involved in caring for patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic – A call for action,” here: http://www.cln.nhs.uk/document_uploads/CLN-Paper-V.6.6.pdf