Half of health workers are suffering mental health problems such as stress and trauma as a result of dealing with Covid-19, new research reveals.

The pandemic is having a “severe impact” on the mental wellbeing of NHS personnel as well as agency staff, GPs and dentists, with rates of anxiety and burnout also running far higher than usual.

New YouGov polling for the IPPR thinktank found that 50% of 996 healthcare workers questioned across the UK said their mental health had deteriorated since the virus began taking its toll.

That emerged as the biggest impact on staff, just ahead of worries about their family’s safety because of a lack of testing and protective equipment for NHS workers (49%) and concern about their ability to ensure that patients receive high-quality care when the NHS is so busy (43%).

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As many as 71% of younger health professionals, who are likely to be inexperienced and early in their careers, said their mental health had deteriorated. More women were affected than men.

Just 30% of staff felt that the government was doing enough to protect their mental health; 42% said too little was being done, including 43% of those working in hospitals.

The survey findings come amid rising concern that the unprecedented challenges of treating so many people who are seriously unwell or dying will have a catastrophic mental effect on staff, including those working in intensive care and elsewhere developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

The IPPR is concerned that the psychological demands of working in the NHS during the pandemic are also an important reason why its research found that as many as one in five staff may quit. The higher rates of burnout and stress at the frontline are a key factor, it says.

“Our care heroes are making significant sacrifices to pull our country through this crisis. It is imperative [the] government does not allow their efforts to become a modern Charge of the Light Brigade,” said IPPR research fellow Chris Thomas, the lead author of the report.

Asked to select their priorities for government action in the next few weeks, more health staff cited greater support for their mental health (60%) than improved access to testing for coronavirus. NHS bodies across the UK have increased the availability of mental health help, especially online.

Overall, 21% of those questioned by YouGov earlier this month said that Covid-19 had made them more likely to stop working in health. That could see the NHS in England alone lose 300,000 of its 1.5 million-strong workforce, said the IPPR. It warned that without “bold action” by ministers on PPE and testing, “healthcare capacity could be impacted for years after the end of the Covid-19 crisis”.

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Ministers should recognise the huge contribution made by NHS staff to tackling the pandemic with a package of measures to reward them once the virus has gone, the IPPR believes. “Now, just as after world war one there was the ‘homes fit for heroes’ drive and after world war two the establishment of the ‘cradle to grave’ NHS, the government must now deliver ‘care fit for carers’,” the report adds.

It wants the government to award all health and care workers a “Covid-19 pay bonus” equivalent to 10% of their salary for everyone working in the sector in 2020-21, much better mental health support for those who need it, and a new bank holiday to celebrate health professionals.

“Individual staff members will be coping personally with the Covid-19 pandemic in their own way and at their own pace, and will continue to look after patients and those they care for, many of whom are scarred by their experiences,” said Dr Emma Vaux, the Royal College of Physicians’ vice-president for education and training.

Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, said: “This report makes clear the very real and varied impacts of this devastating outbreak of Covid-19 on the lives of health and care staff, and the wider general public. It is extremely concerning over 70% of healthcare professionals felt the government has not been doing enough to protect and test them, while there is also a worrying level of dissatisfaction in the availability of mental health support for staff, particularly among nurses and midwives.”

An NHS England spokesperson said: “NHS staff are currently fighting the biggest healthcare challenge in generations, so extra support is both needed and available, including offering NHS mental health support within trusts, and new text, online and telephone support services.”