NHS call handlers burning out due to stress, union warns

NHS call handlers are quitting amid burnout at dealing with 999 calls about suicides, stabbings and shootings and long delays before ambulances reach patients.

- Denis Campbell

The pressure is so intense that 27% of control room staff in ambulance services across Britain have left their jobs over the last three years, NHS figures show.

Some find they cannot cope so soon after starting that they resign within a year. Many feel "overwhelmed" by the demands of their roles, "unsupported" by their employers and "powerless" to help patients facing life-or-death emergencies, according to a report by the trade union Unison.

Call handlers become so stressed that they took more than half a million days off sick between 2021-22 and 2024-25 - an average of 33 days a year each - data obtained by the union also showed. That is far higher than the annual average of four days taken off sick by workers in the UK overall.