Sicker Than The Patients

Raising awareness of the devastating reality that NHS workers are often sicker than the patients​

The National Health Service (NHS) has provided free healthcare to all British citizens, regardless of wealth or status for the last 75 years. It’s an institution that’s adored by the public and they’re fiercely defensive of it. But decades of budget cuts, staff shortages, COVID-19 and privatisation have taken their toll.​

NHS staff have been chronically neglected and a recent study has found that over half of NHS staff are suffering with poor mental health, with one in four having suicidal thoughts. ​

Frontline19 is a charity that exists to provide free therapy to NHS staff who are suffering with their mental health. An often lifesaving service that is no longer offered by the British government.

This film presents the distressing reality of a space that the audience has previously not had access to, allowing them to glimpse heartbreaking moments, recreated based on real anecdotes from frontline healthcare workers.​

The film captures staff breaking down outside hospital rooms before composing themselves, ​a nurse suffering from an anxiety attack in the back alley of a hospital, staff shaking from the shock of the scenes they have witnessed, and employees being abused by patients.​

Towards the end of the film, we see healthcare workers putting on a brave face and getting back to work as if nothing is wrong.