Northamptonshire male role model award winner Nick Wilson calls out booster vaccination drive for straining mental health care

West Northamptonshire Council's male role model award winner has called out the Government' s new push to boost vaccinations as undermining medical and mental care for thousands.

Nick Wilson, from Towcester, won the award in November this year, in large part due to his founding of Talk Mental Health, a men's support group that has supported 150 men since May 2020.

He has now criticised the Government's handling of Covid-19 and the lockdowns, saying that many more people have been left to 'suffer' without secondary care, which was almost entirely postponed during the lockdowns.

The veteran said that his own care, which includes seven different specialists, was delayed by more than two years.

Nick said: "I have seven prolapsed disks in my spine from my time in the army, which causes chronic pain throughout my body. I also deal with complex PTSD and depression.

"As a disabled person, I rely on secondary care. That was taken away.

"I think it was the lack of care, as well as the loneliness and isolation, that meant my state deteriorated over those six months.

"It got to the point where I was thinking 'why do I bother?', 'why do I put up with all this pain', 'why don't I just end it?' I have large amounts of painkillers, so it wouldn't be hard for me to overdose."

Nick described what felt like a game of referral badminton, where he went from mental health line to his GP, back to the line, who needed the GP's sign-off, who then reportedly took 28 hours to finally reach him.

The campaigner reports being driven so close to the edge that he resorted to calling for an ambulance, only to find that even the ambulance's system had downgraded him to 'non-urgent', despite his dire position.

Nick said: "I rang 111, who put me through to 999. The woman there wanted to send an ambulance as 'urgent', but the system wouldn't let her.

"It was because I hadn't actually done anything yet. But I was trying to get some help so that I didn't get to that place. She had to get her manager to override the system. By that point we were on the phone for 30 or 40 minutes."

With the Government's fresh target of offering Covid boosters to every person over 18 by the end of the year now underway, Nick is worried that the already strained NHS will be stretched to breaking point to meet the goal.

Members of the public, including reporters at this paper, were informed this week that some routine services at their GPs might be unavailable for a short time so they could focus on vaccinations once again.

These being the GPs people like Nick depend on to get help.

This has led the activist to call for an audience with the Prime Minister to try to change his mind about how mental health should be addressed.

Nick said: "We've all been forced to suppress all these things, all these symptoms, all these fears because tackling the pandemic has been prioritised.

"You can throw all the money you want at the NHS, but if they don't have the staff to fulfill those roles, it's not worth a whole lot.

"The Government needs to lead from the front on this one and admit that everything stems from people's mental health, and I do mean everything."

Health bosses say Northamptonshire is on track to reach the Government's goal by the end of December.

Anyone who is struggling should call the Mental Health Number on 0800 448 0828