GP Laurel Spooner speaks out on death of her daughter Sophie

But at age 26, the bright young trainee doctor did the unthinkable and took her own life.

Alarmingly, figures suggest Sophie was among a high number of doctors who feel unsupported from the pressures they are placed under.

Now as the one year anniversary of Sophie’s death approaches this week, her grieving parents Richard and Laurel Spooner, from Colchester, say a breakthrough has been made in securing more mental health support for all doctors in the NHS.

NHS England has agreed to fund around £6million to extend The Practitioners Health Programme, meaning it can be accessed by all NHS doctors across the country.

The programme offers a completely confidential specialist NHS service for doctors and dentists with issues relating to a mental or physical health concern or addiction problem, in particular where these might affect their work.

The strength shown by Sophie’s family to publicly speak out about what happened to her has no doubt been influential in helping to secure the funding.

Laurel, a retired GP who founded the Tollgate Clinic, said her family is keen to learn from what happened and for good to come from it.

“After such a tragic death by suicide it is almost more than we can bear to think that her life came to nothing.

“We are very anxious to learn all the lessons we possibly can. Sophie wanted to be a doctor to help other people.”

The scheme will cover approximately 110,000 more doctors, in addition to those already supported.

Currently support for the mental health of hospital doctors falls to NHS Trusts or NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) but there are large gaps in support.

Sadly this comes too little, too late, for Sophie, who had been working as a locum doctor at Worthing Hospital but in her mum’s words, felt “out of her depth”.

Sophie was advised to see the PHP but could not be seen at the time because funding was only available to doctors who worked within the M25.

Described by her seniors as a “promising doctor”, she had been working in paediatrics and committed suicide three weeks later, after leaving the West Sussex hospital at the end of a morning outpatient clinic.

During her shift she suffered a panic attack, Sophie returned to work, and went out to a gig with friends later that evening. But the following day she was found by her sister in the flat she shared with her 29-year-old fiancé, Jonny Miller, after failing to turn up to plans the siblings had made.

At her inquest the coroner bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression as significant contributory factors to her suicide, after taking a lethal mix of prescription drugs.

Her case is sadly not isolated.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), between 2011 and 2015 there were 81 recorded suicides in medical practitioners.

Laurel said: “Their job is emotionally demanding and junior doctors in particular have very long hours and disrupted sleep.

“As professionals they often feel rushed to do the job and feel overburdened with administration.

“Doctors tend to feel ashamed of their own needs in the face of the suffering of others.

“Unfortunately they have both the knowledge and the means, for example by a lethal dose of drugs, always to hand.

"The general public are often surprised to learn that mental illness among doctors is a taboo in the medical profession. Doctors hide it behind a professional front and colleagues may simply be blind to it or unable to speak about it.

“Being mentally ill carries a stigma that doctors fear it will ruin their careers and many are too frightened to ask for help.”

Talented Sophie had attended Colchester County High School for Girls and then won a scholarship to study for her A-Levels in Costa Rica.

She went to medical school in Newcastle and then completed two foundation years, required for trainee doctors, at hospitals.

It is at this point Sophie felt unsure whether she wanted to train in a medical speciality or to be a GP, so after taking a gap year, started locum work.

Sophie, described by Laurel as “a bright, hard-working student” with “tons of friends” was working at hospitals on England’s south coast and staying with her sister Rosie, also a doctor, when she died.

Laurel explained: “She had had a down patch in February 2017 and felt really gloomy and unsure about her future.

"But she was better after seeing a psychiatrist in Colchester who gave her medication. She was given two weeks off and that seemed that was sufficient to put it right.

“She had gone back to work – it had been very difficult for her to talk to anybody.”

Laurel said the pressures on trainee doctors now are a world away from what she remembers when she trained in her early twenties and therefore morale is “so low” among many.

“I think they [pressures] were much less. Work was less complicated and we worked in teams where you would spend a long time with the same team and you always knew you would have the back up from seniors because they would get to know you as well.

“Also you got more sleep,” added Laurel, who trained at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

She said back then trainees could take more time out on breaks sand share concerns with their peers.

She added: “Today you might not be with another junior doctor in your peer group for several weeks so it is difficult to form relationships. Down in Worthing we have met with staff and set up these groups once a month.

"They are just groups where doctors can talk about cases and discuss what has been difficult, what was scary. Had they done the right thing?”

It was such support that was also lacking for Sophie, who had a close relationship with her parents and three siblings.

Laurel recalled the last time she spoke with her daughter.

“She had trouble sleeping, which we thought was down to the shifts she was working. Two months before she was anxious to hear a complaint had been made about her – she wasn’t to know it was very trivial and when she found out wasn’t given guidance.”

In 2012 the General Medical Council found there were high rates of suicide among doctors going through complaints processes.

Laurel said the complaint was entirely dismissed but it had knocked Sophie’s confidence and many doctors, by their nature, are perfectionists.

News of the funding to expand the PHP, has, she said, made it feel as though “there is something to celebrate – and that Sophie has been able to carry on helping other people which was what she thought mattered more than anything else.

“We need to tell all doctors to take care of themselves first and then they will be able to take good care of the patients,” Laurel added.