BRITAIN’S rip-off energy costs are crippling the NHS with more than seven in 10 health workers regularly seeing patients struggling with their bills, a survey reveals today.

The government’s failure to fund home insulation has created revolving doors at A&Es across the country, front-line workers warned.

Medics told how patients are sent back to cold homes only to return days later with the same “entirely preventable” illnesses caused by cold and damp.

Dr Laura-Jane Smith, a respiratory consultant working in London, said: “Every single day I treat patients whose lung conditions are entirely preventable, but they tell me their homes are cold, mouldy and damp, and they just cannot afford to keep the heating on.

“This is a public health crisis that is entirely preventable, with solutions that lie outside the NHS.”

The survey of 2,128 health workers was commissioned by health campaign groups Medact and Warm This Winter.

More than two in three said high energy bills contribute to avoidable hospital admissions, with 45 per cent having sent patients home knowing that their housing situation would make them ill again.

Almost three-quarters believed that poor-quality housing worsens chronic health conditions or delays treatment of them.

Dr Amaran, a paediatric doctor working in Sheffield, said: “The idea of ‘an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure’ has been abandoned over the course of decades of housing policies that have enriched a select few at the cost of the health of millions.”

Two-thirds of those polled had also seen children experiencing respiratory problems caused or worsened by mould or damp at least once a month.

More than two in three believed that government spending to prevent illnesses created by cold homes is better for the NHS than having to spend money to nurse patients back to health.

Over half believe that addressing energy affordability (67 per cent) and improving energy efficiency (59) would reduce the impact of housing problems on the NHS. 

London clinical psychologist Dr Sabrina Monteregge said: “We can fund the NHS but if that’s not alongside funding healthy homes, we’re not going to get very far, because we are just constantly treating problems that the NHS is not built for.

“The NHS is on its knees, but it was never meant to stand alone – it must work alongside policies that support public health.”

Cold homes contribute to respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, mental health issues, dementia, and hypothermia and significantly slow recovery from injury.

The GMB union has branded the findings “a badge of national shame.”

The regulator Ofgem recently announced a 6.4 per cent rise to the energy price cap next month.

“GMB has been saying for years the energy system is broken; this proves it is not just wallets being impacted but peoples health too,” the union’s national secretary Andy Prendergast said.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr John Puntis said the findings posed a challenge to whether the government was “serious about prevention.”

“Being serious about prevention must mean addressing the social determinants of ill health and making sure that homes are insulated and fuel bills affordable,” he said.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “These shocking findings depict the front-line, public health crisis caused by high energy costs and poorly insulated homes.

“We need bolder action from the government to address this crisis – that means all government departments working together to see fuel poverty as a national challenge.

“And it means the Chancellor backing moves to tackle the problem, such as committing the full £13.2bn funding needed for the Warm Homes Plan.”

Warm This Winter spokeswoman Caroline Simpson said that it’s “a disgrace that people across the country are forced to live in such unhealthy homes and are unable to afford to keep them warm and dry… especially when we see energy companies raking billions in profits whilst ordinary people are choosing between eating and heating.”

Most health workers also reported their own mental or physical health has been impacted by housing issues. 

Claire Goodwin-Fee, CEO of Frontline19, a mental health non-profit service for front-line workers, said: “This isn’t just a housing crisis—it’s a public health emergency.

“If we truly value our NHS and the people who hold it together, we must act now to give them the security, warmth, and support they so desperately need.”