It is always difficult to get a clear view of how the NHS is performing. Clearly, after the challenges of the pandemic, some metrics are showing encouraging movement in the right direction.

Last year, the NHS announced that, “the overall waiting list fell by more than 95,000 – down to 7.6 million in November from 7.7 million in October”. It went on to say that the progress was “down to NHS staff delivering more than 1.63 million treatments in November, the highest monthly activity on record, and around 150,000 more than the same month before the pandemic (1.48 million in Nov 2019)”.

However, more recently, a BBC report on waiting lists claimed: “The published waiting list stands at 7.6 million – but the true scale of the backlog is thought to be much higher. This is because patients needing ongoing care are not automatically included in those figures – even if they face major delays…

“BBC News has spoken to patients waiting months and even years for vital treatment, such as cancer care, spinal treatment, and others at risk of going blind because of deteriorating eyesight,” it continued.

Given the uncertainty around care, it is clear that, for employers, the risk of losing workers to ill health while they wait for treatment is real, however hard it is to quantify.

In 2023, Axa published a report by a well-regarded economics consultancy, Frontier Economics, looking at the value delivered by private healthcare. It found that private health cover can reduce sickness benefits claims by at least £7.2m per year; that private health cover reduces lost productivity by more than £32m per year; and that the total impact on quality of life from faster treatment due to private health cover is worth about £350m per year.

There is no doubt that the NHS provides the UK excellent value for money, and that it will be the mainstay of healthcare in the UK for the foreseeable future. For employers managing health and well-being risks in the workplace, however, there is also little doubt that private healthcare makes a real difference.

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