NHS call handlers quitting over stress amid ‘relentless exposure to trauma’

One call handler told Unison: ‘Some shifts are overwhelmingly traumatic, with 90% of the calls of a distressing nature.’ Photograph: Garry F McHarg/Daily Record/PA

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

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.