Declining NHS performance over the last decade is disrupting UK workforce health and failing to effectively tackle the biggest causes of long-term sickness absence, according to Lord Ara Darzi.
Lord Darzi highlighted the importance of a healthy workforce being more productive and emphasised that improving access to care was a crucial contribution the NHS can make to national prosperity.
However his landmark report into the state of the NHS noted the health service was not contributing to national prosperity as well as it could and was hampering workforce health.
It highlighted the long waiting lists for the biggest causes of long-term sickness, mental health and musculoskeletal (MSK) services, being of particular concern
The report laid much of the blame for the collapse in NHS standards since 2010 with the Conservative government’s austerity, funding cuts and 2012 reforms, along with failure to engage patients and the workforce.
Long-term sickness rising
The report noted that at the start of 2024, 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, an 800,000 increase on pre-pandemic levels with most of the rise from mental health conditions.
Long-term sickness as a proportion of those who are economically inactive decreased during the 2000s, stayed constant in the 2010s and then increased sharply during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most of the recent rise in long-term sickness is being driven by mental health conditions, especially for two main age groups: 16-to-34-year-olds and 50-to-64-year-olds, the report found.
The fastest growth in long-term sickness absence was for 16-to-34-year-olds, with growth of 9.5% between 2015 and 2019, rising to a staggering 57.1% between 2019 and 2023.
For musculoskeletal conditions and other health problems or disabilities, the report showed the previous downward trend in long-term sickness absence between 2015 to 2019 was replaced with significant growth between 2019 to 2023.
Worryingly, younger people are most adversely affected; long term sickness absence for people aged 16-to-34 with musculoskeletal conditions declined at an annual rate of 9.7% in 2015 to 2019 before growing 16.4% between 2019 to 2023, it added.
“Being in work is good for wellbeing and having more people in work grows the economy and creates more tax receipts to fund public services,” Lord Darzi said.
“There is therefore a virtuous circle if the NHS can help more people back into work.
“As we have seen, however, there are long waiting lists for both mental health services and for musculoskeletal (MSK) services.
“Improving access to care is a crucial contribution the NHS can make to national prosperity.”