Patient complaints are pushing up suicide rates among doctors, a leading medic has said as it emerged that female doctors are up to four times more likely to take their own lives than those in other professions.

The number of physicians ending their own lives is on the rise, Dr Clare Gerada has warned as she said that one of the main reasons seems to be that patients are now encouraged to make complaints which doctors find "shatter their sense of self" even when they are trivial or unjustified.

Between 2011 and 2015, 430 doctors took their own lives in England and Dr Gerada described the issue of mental health problems as "the last taboo in the NHS".

Dr Gerada, medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), said that theories on why female doctors "have up to four times the risk of suicide in comparison to people in the (general) population" include that they still have to do most of the childcare and caring for elderly parents on top of a stressful job with long hours.

Other risk factors include the stigma associated with medics receiving professional help and the male-centric leadership within the NHS which can leave women feeling isolated.