Back and neck problems driving major UK health crisis, say medical leaders

Health leaders said the enormous growth in back and neck problems was accelerating rapidly because many affected could not access treatment. Photograph: Tara Moore/Getty Images

Britain is facing a major health crisis fuelled by a surge in back and neck problems, medical leaders have warned, caused by an increasingly sedentary, obese and ageing population and the rise in remote working.

Almost a million people in the UK are too sick to work because of back or neck ailments, according to official data, which threatens to derail ministers’ efforts to expand the workforce and grow the economy.