NHS Practitioner Health

Practitioner Health is a free, confidential NHS service that is available to doctors across England who need support with their mental health, addiction problems, or for those who are looking to return to General Practice.

Problems range from stress, anxiety and depression, through to more complex addiction issues – but for most GP’s, there is a strong component of work-related difficulty.

As GP workload and stress levels continue to rise, the risk to practitioners’ own mental health only increases. Life and work are not separable.

Practitioner Health is provided by healthcare professionals that specialise in mental health support for doctors and is available in various locations across England, including East Anglia.

GP’s often find it difficult to access mainstream mental health or addiction services due to concerns about confidentiality. As part of Practitioner Health, all doctors have a right to request that their status as a practitioner patient remains confidential and is only known to the Practitioner Health Service (PHS).

You can access the PHS by completing an online self-referral form. You will then be contacted to arrange a time for a short phone call in which you will be given access to their smartphone app that allows you to book an appointment.

Practitioner Health provide other sources of help such as  counselling services, national and regional support groups, career advice and online reading materials. These can be found here.

The Practitioner Health Programme can be contacted via prac.health@nhs.net or 0300 0303 300. It is available 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 7:30am – 2:30pm Saturday. Further information is available at https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/