A healthy workforce means a healthy economy. Britain can’t afford to be so ill

Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

The appointment of the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt as chancellor is particularly timely, given one of the largest problems facing the British economy: the growing number of working-age adults who are “economically inactive” – meaning they are neither employed nor looking for work – because they struggling with long-term sickness. Long-term sickness is being driven by two key factors: long Covid and people being signed off sick until they can access NHS care.

While the mortality rate for Covid-19 has fallen significantly through vaccination and treatments, the disease is still the cause of chronic illness. Of those who have been infected, an estimated 5.5% have debilitating symptoms including fatigue, recurring fevers, brain fog and heart, lung and kidney damage. A recent study in the Lancet estimated that about 22% of people with long Covid were unable to work due to ill health and another 45% had to take reduced hours. Many countries will start to see waves of Covid every three months, leading to many more people developing chronic illness and leaving the workforce.

The other major factor is the inability to access timely NHS care – the people waiting for months for surgeryand specialised services. ONS data indicates that among those who had left their previous job due to a health-related condition such as illness or disability, 35% were on an NHS waiting list. The NHS is unable to cope with the volume and quality of care needed (largely due to neglect by the UK government, of which Hunt was a part, over the past decade).

By Devi Sridhar.

Full story at Yahoo News.