Businesses feeling greater responsibility to look after employee health

Follows longer NHS waiting times

Jaskeet Briah
clock • 2 min read

Three quarters (73%) of businesses have said they feel greater responsibility to look after the health of all their employees amid longer NHS waiting times, according to health benefits provider Simplyhealth.

This research comes at a time when the NHS waiting list has increased for the first time since August 2024. The list stood at 7.42 million in March 2025, compared to 7.4m in February which marked an increase of 18,751, although this represented a 1.56% decline year-on-year when the waiting list sat at 7.54m in March 2024. Simplyhealth surveyed 500 HR DMs in UK businesses and 2,000 UK employees about their workplace health and wellbeing and employer practice. Despite employers feeling a greater responsibility to look after their employees' health, Simplyhealth found that 40% of employe...

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