Cutting mental health waiting times ‘could save UK £1bn a year’
Ministers have been told cutting waiting times for thousands of people in Britain’s mental health crisis could help employment and save the government £1bn a year.According to research by Lancaster University, providing access to faster treatment across England through the NHS would help to improve the health of hundreds of thousands of people while bringing economic benefits for the nation at large.In a new study to be published in the latest edition of the respected Review of Economics and Statistics academic journal, Prof Roger Prudon found that a one-month delay in the start of mental health treatment resulted in 2% of patients losing their jobs.Drawing on data for waiting times from the Netherlands between 2012 and 2019, Prudon said a one-month reduction could help as many as 80,000 people get access to treatment annually, which would save more than €300m (£253m) in unemployment-related costs every year.He said the same calculation could be applied to the UK, given a comparable prevalence in mental health problems, as well as similar treatment times and cost to the economy and public finances from unemployment.
Britain’s larger population would mean a one-month reduction in waiting times for mental health treatment could help as many as 300,000 people each year, and would save about £1bn each year in lost income taxes and payouts for unemployment benefits.“Data on NHS mental health treatments linked to employment outcomes is scarce in the UK, so while the Netherlands’ setup is different, the healthcare system is similar to that of the UK – and both countries are facing increasing demands for mental health treatments and a backlog of extended waiting lists,” he said.“Applying this calculation to the UK – based solely on population size – it could generate approximate savings of £1bn per year.”Ministers are pushing to dramatically reduce lengthy waiting times for patients in England with a plan to cut backlogs for elective hospital treatment and by providing more appointments through seven-day health hubs.However, charities warn the plan does not currently include any commitment to tackling waits for mental health services.
According to research by the charity Rethink Mental Illness, people are eight times more likely to wait more than 18 months for mental health treatment than for physical conditions.The government is also prioritising NHS reforms and cutting waiting lists to boost employment, aiming to boost economic growth and cut the benefits bill, amid record numbers of working-age adults leaving the workforce due to health issues.Official figures show there were about 3.8 million people in England in contact with NHS mental health, learning disability and autism services in 2023-24, up almost two-fifths compared with before the pandemic.Prudon said that in the Netherlands about 1 million people are in contact with the health service with a mental health issue.
To reduce waiting times by one month, he said about 100 additional psychiatrists or psychologists would be required at an approximate annual cost of €10m (£8.4m).Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionDue to the larger population, in the UK four times as many extra mental health professionals would be required.However, Prudon said the savings for Rachel Reeves’s stretched budget and the economy would considerably outweigh the costs.He added: “The issue of waiting times is not new, both in the UK and the Netherlands.
This has been an issue for at least a decade,But what’s lacking in the debate so far, is that people are saying: ‘OK, it’s the treatment that’s important,But the government has limited funds, we can’t keep on spending money,’ However, there is also an economic case to be made,“It is not a case that we’re just losing money if we invest more in mental health.
In the long run this would save the country quite a lot of money by retaining more people in the workforce,”A government spokesperson said: “This government inherited a broken mental health system, with too many people on waiting lists being held back from employment,Our shift towards prevention, together with our welfare reforms, will help more people return to work and boost economic growth,“We are transforming mental health services through our Plan for Change, by investing an extra £680m this year, hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies and cutting mental health waiting lists,”
Elon Musk claims he will step back from political donations in near future
Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday that he would decrease the amount of money he spends on politics for the foreseeable future. If true, the reduction would represent a significant turnaround after the world’s richest person positioned himself as the Republican party’s most enthusiastic donor over the last year.“I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said during a video interview with Bloomberg News at the Qatar Economic Forum.Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain asked the Tesla CEO if he had decided how much to spend on midterm elections, which elicited Musk’s response. When asked why he was pulling back, Musk said flatly: “I think I’ve done enough” – drawing laughs from the audience, although it was unclear if he was joking
Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds
Almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist, according to a new survey.The research reveals that nearly 70% of 16- to 21-year-olds feel worse about themselves after spending time on social media. Half (50%) would support a “digital curfew” that would restrict their access to certain apps and sites past 10pm, while 46% said they would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether.A quarter of respondents spent four or more hours a day on social media, while 42% of those surveyed admitted to lying to their parents and guardians about what they do online.While online, 42% said they had lied about their age, 40% admitted to having a decoy or “burner” account, and 27% said they pretended to be a different person completely
Microsoft employee interrupts CEO’s keynote with pro-Palestinian protest
A Microsoft employee disrupted a keynote speech by the company’s chief executive with a pro-Palestinian protest at the company’s annual developer conference on Monday.Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer who worked on parts of the company’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, was escorted out the Build conference by security nearly immediately after he confronted Satya Nadella.“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians,” Lopez yelled. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”After the disruption, Lopez sent an all-staff email explaining his decision to stage a protest.“As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel,” read the email, which has also been published on Medium
How to protect your data after a cyber-attack
Another cyber-attack has hit the headlines – this one involving the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales.It comes hard on the heels of recent cyber-attacks that caused huge disruption at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op, and has prompted fresh reminders for people to be extra-vigilant for any suspicious activity.If you’re worried your data may have fallen into the wrong hands somehow, here are some tips for protecting yourself.Always make sure you have strong passwords, and don’t use the same one on more than one account.If you have had any dealings with a company or organisation that has suffered a cyber-attack, change the password that you use for that website or app immediately
Bankrupt DNA testing firm 23andMe to be purchased for $256m
The drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the genetic testing firm 23andMe Holding for $256m through a bankruptcy auction, the companies announced on Monday.Regeneron said it will comply with 23andMe’s privacy policies and applicable laws with respect to the use of customer data and that it is ready to detail its intended use of the data to a court-appointed overseer. The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter.“Regeneron Genetics Center is committed to and has a proven track record of safeguarding the genetic data of people across the globe, and, with their consent, using this data to pursue discoveries that benefit science and society,” said Aris Baras, the senior vice-president and head of the Regeneron Genetics Center. “We assure 23andMe customers that we are committed to protecting the 23andMe dataset with our high standards of data privacy, security and ethical oversight and will advance its full potential to improve human health
AI can be more persuasive than humans in debates, scientists find
Artificial intelligence can do just as well as humans, if not better, when it comes to persuading others in a debate, and not just because it cannot shout, a study has found.Experts say the results are concerning, not least as it has potential implications for election integrity.“If persuasive AI can be deployed at scale, you can imagine armies of bots microtargeting undecided voters, subtly nudging them with tailored political narratives that feel authentic,” said Francesco Salvi, the first author of the research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He added that such influence was hard to trace, even harder to regulate and nearly impossible to debunk in real time.“I would be surprised if malicious actors hadn’t already started to use these tools to their advantage to spread misinformation and unfair propaganda,” Salvi said
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