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Long waiting times for National Health Service (NHS) care are leaving people too sick to work in the UK, which is affecting the country's economy. One in three people missed work in 2022 due to delays in accessing NHS care, revealed a new survey by Pollsters Savanta. The market research consultancy surveyed 2,235 people in the UK this month on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. According to the survey results, 19 per cent of the participants could not go to work as they were waiting for a GP appointment. While 15 per cent of the respondents had to take a long period off work while they waited for treatment or surgery, 12 per cent missed work as they waited for emergency dental treatments. Overall, 36 per cent of those surveyed had missed at least some work because of difficulty getting NHS care.

The NHS catch up plan to bring down the number of waiters in the diagnostic list has helped in witnessing a drop of 6,500 people waiting more than two years for elective treatment between February and March. While those waiting more than 78 weeks - a year and a half - dropped by 5,700 over the same period. According to latest month data published today (May 12) more than two million diagnostic tests were carried out - the highest total for March on record - and an increase of 217,000 on the previous month (Feb 2022). The data revealed that it was also the highest month on record for cancer referrals, with 253,796 people checked in March alone - an almost 40 per cent increase on the number of checks made in March 2020. Alongside this, almost 30,000 people started treatment for cancer (28,378) - the second highest number on record. This is second only to March 2020, with 28,881 people starting treatment.