From sick care to healthcare: why prevention must become the UK’s next economic priority

The UK cannot build a healthier, more productive workforce while continuing to treat illness only after it develops. Alexander Badalyan, Co-Founder and CEO of Emerald, argues that prevention must become part of the country’s health infrastructure, with employers playing an increasingly important role in making it accessible.

The future of healthcare may depend less on how effectively we treat illness and more on how successfully we prevent it.

For decades, the UK’s healthcare system has been built around diagnosing and treating people once something goes wrong. But with millions living with long-term health conditions, growing pressure on NHS services and ill health contributing to economic inactivity, the limitations of this approach are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The consequences extend far beyond healthcare. Poor health is affecting workforce participation, productivity and business performance, raising a more fundamental question: can the UK achieve sustainable economic growth without fundamentally changing how it approaches population health?

For Badalyan the answer lies in making prevention a continuous, accessible part of everyday life, rather than an intervention that begins when symptoms appear.

“NHS workflows currently focus on responding to illness rather than preventing it. Under pressure from rising demand, workforce shortages and growing numbers of people with long-term conditions, the system simply doesn’t have the capacity to proactively monitor everyone and flag potential concerns.”

While prevention has featured in healthcare policy for years, Badalyan believes the challenge now is translating that ambition into practical, scalable services that identify risks earlier and help people act before their health deteriorates.

The Government’s NHS 10 Year Health Plan, published in July 2025, identifies a shift from sickness to prevention as a central priority. But achieving that shift will require changes to how healthcare is funded, delivered and accessed.And increasingly, that conversation is moving into the workplace. 

The economic case for prevention is becoming harder to ignore. The Keep Britain Working Review estimated that poor workplace health costs employers around £85bn annually, while the wider economic impact of ill health has been estimated at 7 per cent of GDP.

Around 2.8 million people are economically inactive because of long-term sickness, with the Institute for Public Policy Research warning that this could rise to 4.3 million by 2029 if current trends continue.

These figures position workforce health as more than an employee benefits issue. It is increasingly a question of economic resilience, labour market participation and the ability of organisations to sustain performance over time.

“As ill health has an ever-growing impact on the UK economy, we need to mitigate this by developing solutions that tackle poor health at an early stage, helping to prevent conditions from worsening; ease pressure on NHS services; and positively impact individuals, communities, and the economy.”

For Badalyan, the case for earlier intervention is also deeply personal. “For me, this challenge is personal. My mum was a doctor and an active woman in her 50s, but her cancer was only diagnosed after she attended A&E. This experience is a large part of why I built Emerald – and why I remain committed to helping to shift the dial when it comes to preventative healthcare.”

His experience highlights one of the central challenges facing modern healthcare: people can appear healthy, remain active and continue working while underlying conditions develop unnoticed.

It also raises questions about whether health systems should focus more on understanding an individual’s health trajectory over time, rather than relying predominantly on isolated appointments and interventions.

For employers, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Workplace healthcare has expanded considerably in scope, with organisations investing in everything from private medical insurance and virtual GP services to health screening, digital wellbeing platforms and employee assistance programmes.

Yet greater investment and a broader selection of benefits do not automatically translate into better health outcomes. “Employers have an increasingly important role to play in preventative healthcare, particularly in helping people identify health risks earlier and access support more easily – but simply offering a long list of benefits is not enough.”

Badalyan argues that too many organisations continue to measure the value of their wellbeing provision by what is available rather than whether employees actually engage with it.

“There is often a disconnect between what employers think their people want and what employees will actually use. Some benefits are introduced largely as a tick-box exercise to remain competitive when hiring, but then see very little engagement.”

The implications are significant. A benefit that appears attractive during recruitment may deliver little value if employees do not understand it, cannot access it easily or fail to see how it supports their health.

“Low utilisation may appear economical in the short term, but if a benefit does not improve employees’ health, satisfaction or ability to work, it is not achieving its purpose. That ultimately has a downstream cost for both the individual and the employer.”

This points towards a different model of workplace wellbeing: one in which employers prioritise meaningful engagement, appropriate clinical support and measurable outcomes rather than the volume of services offered.

Emerald’s approach combines health testing, wearable data, personalised action plans and ongoing GP access, with the aim of helping individuals understand their health and take appropriate action.

Badalyan says the platform achieves utilisation rates of more than 80 per cent across the employers it supports, which he attributes partly to providing a connected service rather than a series of disconnected benefits.

“We aim to be the medical companion, or the GP in your pocket, that helps people understand their health first and take appropriate action. We recommend NHS or private follow-up where it is clinically necessary, rather than sending every member into an already stretched healthcare system.”

The wider opportunity is to move workplace healthcare beyond occasional screenings and reactive treatment towards a model that supports people in understanding and managing health risks throughout their working lives.

But making prevention a meaningful part of the UK’s healthcare system will require more than technology and employer investment.

According to NHS Health Check programme figures cited by Badalyan, 1.3 million people received a health check during 2025/26, representing 8.2 per cent of the eligible population.

The figures illustrate the challenge of delivering preventative services at population scale, particularly when healthcare resources are already stretched.

They also raise an important question for the future of workplace wellbeing: could employer-funded prevention help close gaps in healthcare access, or risk creating a system in which those with the right jobs receive better opportunities to protect their health?

Badalyan believes collaboration between public healthcare and private providers will be essential. “Employer-funded solutions will be key to expanding access to preventative care – which is why we have focused on developing key partnerships with employee benefits providers.”

Emerald is available through benefits platforms including Epassi, Pluxee, Ben and Heka, allowing employers to offer its services through existing benefits arrangements.

The company has also received backing from Innovate UK, including an additional grant intended to support further expansion. Badalyan points to Emerald’s own member data as evidence of the potential for preventative interventions to influence health indicators. The company reports that its testing and follow-on coaching services have helped members almost halve inflammation markers and reduce blood sugar levels by around a third. It also reports improvements in cholesterol among two in three members, alongside reductions in triglycerides among those with elevated levels.

These are company-reported outcomes rather than evidence, on their own, of long-term reductions in disease or healthcare demand. Nevertheless, they illustrate the types of measures preventative healthcare providers are increasingly using to demonstrate value beyond service utilisation.

For employers evaluating healthcare benefits, the distinction between access, engagement and demonstrable health improvement is likely to become increasingly important.

“If prevention is to become genuinely accessible at scale, the government and the private sector must work in tandem. The goal should be to use private and employer-funded solutions to widen access to preventative healthcare, rather than allow it to become a privilege available only to those who can afford it.”

The next challenge is designing a system in which prevention is not dependent on individuals navigating multiple services, interpreting complex health information or knowing when to seek help.

Badalyan believes the UK can learn from countries where preventative healthcare is already more closely integrated into everyday life.

Singapore’s Healthier SG programme connects individuals with a regular family doctor, personalised health plans and subsidised screening. Estonia has developed a national health information system designed to give clinicians a more complete picture of patient health, while Japan has made regular employer-funded health checks part of working life.

These models differ in their structures and funding, but they offer examples of how prevention can be embedded into healthcare delivery rather than treated as a separate service.

“The UK does not need to copy any one system, but the common lesson is that prevention works best when it is continuous, connected and built into everyday life,” Badalyan says. “A one-off health check or set of results is not enough if the individual is then left wondering what they mean or what to do next.”

Technology will undoubtedly play a role in that transition. Wearables, connected health records, digital diagnostics and personalised health platforms are creating opportunities to monitor health indicators more consistently and identify potential concerns earlier.

Badalyan adds that collecting more information is not the same as improving health. “For real change to happen, prevention needs to become funded infrastructure rather than simply a policy ambition,” he says. “Investment should focus on stronger primary care, earlier access to clinically appropriate diagnostics, and secure, connected health records that give both patients and clinicians a clear view of someone’s health over time.

“Technology should not simply generate more data. It needs to turn that data into a practical plan and make appropriate follow-up easier.”

Rather than focusing solely on the number of employees accessing a service, organisations may increasingly need to consider whether provision helps people identify health risks, access appropriate support, manage existing conditions and remain healthy enough to participate in work.

It also brings human sustainability into sharper focus.

If organisations are serious about supporting people’s long-term health and ability to thrive, preventative healthcare cannot be viewed simply as another employee perk. It needs to form part of a wider approach that considers working conditions, organisational culture, health risks and the support available throughout an individual’s working life.

Importantly, prevention cannot sit with employers alone. Nor can individual responsibility replace the need for accessible public healthcare, effective clinical standards and a working environment that supports health rather than undermines it.

Badalyan argues that accountability must be shared, with the government setting national outcomes, the NHS maintaining clinical standards, employers widening access and private providers developing services that can operate at scale.

The ultimate measure of success will not be how many people complete a health check or download an app, but whether earlier intervention contributes to healthier lives and fewer people leaving employment because of avoidable ill health.

“In 10 years, success should mean fewer avoidable emergency admissions, earlier identification of risk, more healthy years lived and fewer people leaving the workforce because of preventable ill health,” Badalyan says. “People should be able to see and understand their health information, know what action to take and access clinical support when they need it. None of that should feel innovative by then – it should simply be how healthcare works.”