William suggests enforced career breaks to protect NHS workers mental health

The Prince of Wales suggested NHS staff should have enforced career breaks to aid their mental health, during a meeting to hear how health workers coped with the pandemic.

William visited the Oasis Health and Wellbeing Centre and garden at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, which, five years ago to the day – March 5 – recorded the first person to die after testing positive for coronavirus.

He chatted to staff from the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust who were on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic, and listened as one senior nurse became emotional when he described not visiting his elderly parents in Italy for two years to protect them during the outbreak.

The prince visited the Trust’s centre in his role as royal patron of NHS Charities Together which provided some of the £3 million needed to renovate the resource that has a gym, yoga classes and a garden providing spaces for recreation, reflection and vegetable growing.

William, a former air ambulance helicopter pilot, told a small group of NHS staff who use the facility: “Everyone in the NHS is there to care for others so the last person who gets looked after is the individual.

“I’ve seen that when I’ve worked with doctors, nurses, paramedics – they always put it down the line, they don’t want to put their workload on to someone else – how do you go around identifying the right people?

“Because for me, looking into the nation’s mental health, if you like, over the last few years, unless there’s almost an enforced break in somebody’s career – as part of your career development – we’re never going to get to the point where we can look after their mental health, because you always rely on the individual to put their hand up.”

NHS Charities Together launched its Covid-19 Urgent Appeal in 2020 and raised £162 million to support NHS staff, patients and communities, working with a network of 235 NHS charities based in every Trust and Health Board around the UK.

Sergio Tammelleo, 33, a lead nurse who worked on a Covid ward during the pandemic, had told William about not seeing his family in Italy for a number of years and after the visit talked about his harrowing pandemic experiences.

He said: “I remember there were days when we had 15, 20 deaths in a day and that still affects me.

“If you think about somebody who comes to the ward and within four or five hours will pass away, die, that is something that will never go away, it will stay in my mind forever.”

Later William toured the garden and was shown an area where staff have their lunch and an open space turned over to wildlife with a pond where workers can sit quietly, and he paused for a few minutes at two trees dedicated to two members of staff who died during the pandemic.

In the open air the prince chatted to a group of senior medical staff who worked during the pandemic to hear about their experiences and at the end of the discussion told them: “Remember you’re doing a really good job. Thank you.”

The Trust in Reading has a connection with the Princess of Wales, also a royal patron of NHS Charities Together, who was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital on January 9 1982.

Mr Tammelleo, suggested the work his trust is doing to support staff could be adopted by other hospitals: “Having a building helps a lot because you can group all the health and wellbeing activities in this building and it’s something I think other trusts should also try.

“We found it helps especially after some traumatic events with staff debriefing and discussions.

“You find that people open up and will start talking a lot more, not just about that event.”

Published: 05/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub