Some 37,000 people off work because of long-term sickness have successfully been removed from NHS waiting lists and helped back into work through a trial testing a range of targeted interventions, the government has said.

The pilot by the Department of Health and Social Care has been focused on tackling ill health-related worklessness in 20 locations around the country.

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Data from October 2024 to January 2025 showed waiting lists in those 20 areas had, on average, been reduced at more than double the rate of the rest of the country. They fell 130% faster in areas where the government scheme was in action than the national average.

Initiatives have included setting up a series of ‘super clinics’ at the Northern Care Alliance and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. These have enabled to 100 patients a day to be seen, including, where appropriate, referral to employment advisers to help address barriers to getting back into work.

For those stuck waiting for elective surgery, they have been booked on to ‘high flow theatre’ lists, such as the Trafford Elective Surgery Hub.

Similar ‘super clinics’ for gynaecology have been run at Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with, again, a focus on providing one-stop models that reduce the need for follow up appointments.

At East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, the focus has been on streamlining diagnostic pathways and increasing capacity for echocardiography, or heart scans.

This initiative alone had reduced the waiting list for these from around 2,700 patients to around 700 – with all of patients having their scan within six weeks, the DHSC said.

The DHSC has said that the initial success of the programme means similar initiatives will be rolled out to additional providers this year to boost.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: “By sending top doctors to provide targeted support to hospitals in the areas of highest economic inactivity, we are getting sick Brits back to health and back to work.

“We have to get more out of the NHS for what we put in. By taking the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, reforming the way surgeries are running, we are cutting waiting lists twice as fast at no extra cost to the taxpayer,” he added.

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