WIREDGOV

Siva Anandaciva, Director of Policy, Events and Partnerships at The King’s Fund responds to the announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care that the government has cut NHS waiting lists three times faster in areas of highest joblessness

‘When the government came into power, they were right to cast the magnifying glass on the connection between people’s poor health and their ability to return to work. While the NHS primarily exists to maintain and improve our health, there can be close links between having a good job and our mental and physical health. The government pledged to ‘take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS’ and cut waiting lists in areas of highest economic inactivity and these reports from the government suggest parts of its approach are working.  

‘It is a good thing that waiting lists in parts of England are coming down. But the reality check is that the overall hospital waiting list in England stood at 7.5 million last year and has only fractionally fallen to 7.4 million despite a full year of funding, energy and focus from the government and NHS. While progress is happening, it is slow going and the government’s ambition to cut hospital waiting times is hanging in the balance at best.  

‘The government is right to explore how improving the NHS can get Britain working again. But again, the reality check is that some of the most common reasons for people being off sick are musculoskeletal issues or mental illness, which are not always going to be tackled by sending in crack teams to improve how quickly NHS surgeries are carried out. The government must keep its focus on the underlying reasons why people are off-work sick long term, support areas of high economic activity but equally long waits for care that are still waiting for a crack team to arrive, and keep going with its health and care ‘accelerators’ programme to help stop people falling out of work in the first place.  

‘The relationship between people’s health and the economy is a two-way street and truly breaking the complex cycle of long-term illness and economic inactivity will require coordinated action across government. This means looking beyond the NHS and Department for Health and Social Care and resurrecting the cross-government ‘health mission’ approach the government promised when it came to power.’