NHS leaders have warned that the health service is facing a ‘mass exodus’ of staff in the year ahead unless exhausted doctors and nurses struggle are given more support.

The warning comes as new figures show that mental health absences among NHS staff have soared during the spring and early summer, with 13,000 NHS staff off work because of mental health issues in May. This is a 55 per cent increase on the previous year, according to FirstCare, which monitors absences in the health service. There were another 13,000 absences mental health absences in June – up 42 per cent on last year.

Stephanie Snow, co-author of the NHS Voices of Covid-19 project, which asks staff how they are coping during the pandemic, told a panel of MPs that many doctors and nurses are worried about their colleagues quitting in the months ahead. She said that staff were under huge pressure to help get the health service back to normal, amid underlying problems with workforce shortages.

She said: “They’re worried about losing more colleagues. There is a real sense of fear about a mass exodus of health professionals leaving because of their own ill health – many say they simply can’t face working in the health service anymore.”

A recent survey of Royal College of Nursing members last month revealed that 36 per cent were thinking of leaving the profession – up from 27 per cent last year. Factors cited include the way nursing staff have been treated during the Covid pandemic (44 per cent), low staffing levels (43 per cent), and lack of management support (42 per cent).

A separate British Medical Association survey in May found that 21 per cent of doctors working in the health service said they might leave within the next year.