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On 12 February 2016, Rose Polge, a foundation doctor at Torbay Hospital in south west England, disappeared. 1 Her body was found in the sea almost two months later. At the inquest, the coroner concluded that she had taken her own life by walking into the sea.
Her death attracted media attention, partly because it occurred at the height of the junior doctors' dispute over their new contract, but also because she had expressed concern about the pressures in the NHS, leaving a note that mentioned the secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt. Polge's mother linked her daughter's suicide directly to her conditions of work, stating on her Just Giving page: "Exhaustion because of long hours, work related anxiety, despair at her future in medicine and the news of the imposition of the new contract on junior doctors (announced [the day before Rose died]) were definite contributors to this awful and final decision." 2
Wider problem
Concern about suicides among junior doctors is not unique to the UK. Earlier this year, Australian media labelled a spate of deaths among junior doctors as a "suicide epidemic," after it emerged that four had taken their lives over five months. The deaths propelled New South Wales's health minister, Brad Hazzard, to launch an urgent investigation into the problem "so we can start putting evidence based measures in place to help those who help us when we need it." 3
A year after Polge's death, another junior doctor, Lauren Phillips, also disappeared in England and has...