NHS trusts must be encouraged to tackle stress and burnout among health professionals for their own and their patients’ safety, argues Dr Fiona Godlee, The BMJ’s Editor in Chief. Next month at BMJ Live , a two-day career development event for health professionals, she will call on NHS trusts to appoint chief wellness officers, charged with implementing strategies to reduce burnout, as part of The BMJ’s campaign for doctors’ wellbeing. The ‘giveusabreak’ campaign calls for doctors to be able to take breaks and to have places where they can rest and recuperate, for their own and their patients’ safety. For many doctors working in the NHS or any other over-stretched health system, working long and often unsociable hours without adequate rest breaks has become the norm. Evidence suggests that with year-round pressures on services demanding beds and facilities, doctors’ lounges and other informal staff spaces are often not prioritised, […]