The Practioneer Health Programme (PHP) is a pioneering effort by the National Health Service to extend ‘confidential’ help to medical practitioners struggling with their own health and mental problems.

That doctors actually need healthcare is evident from the PHP statistics which revealed that while two-thirds of the 180 doctors and dentists attending the programme, in the last one year, were suffering mental disorders; nearly one-fourth of them were hooked to “ketamine, methadrone, amphetamine, heroin... every drug under the sun,” as PHP medical director Clare Gerada put it.

Furthermore, out of those medics who reported mental heath issues, almost 29 percent suffered from depression, and 21 had anxiety. At least 34 percent of the medics reported eating disorders, and a whopping 77 percent admitted their dependence on alcohol.

What was more alarming, according to Gerada, was that six medics being helped under the PHP had “undiagnosed psychosis... bipolar disorders where doctors were working but nobody had picked up the illness. Gerada added that PHP was “able to pick it up much earlier before they were able to damage patients.”

The PHP was initiated in London in September 2008, by the outgoing chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson. With the service turning out to be a successful one in London, it will also be introduced in other parts of the country as well – beginning with Avon and Newcastle.