Around half of employees in the UK are calling for their employers to take greater responsibility for their wellbeing and health care, according a nationwide survey conducted by to the UK health insurance provider, Bupa Health Insurance.

The demand for a pension as a health care benefit has fallen by six per cent among employees, however they did show preference towards private medical insurance (PMI), as the demand increased by 40 per cent. The demand gap between these products has also halved, to nine per cent, with PMI's fast becoming the number one employee benefit that workers are going for. The survey also found that along with PMI’s, health assessment and free gym membership, are among the services that employees are adding to their wish list.

This comes at a time, when the UK Government is putting increasing pressure on workplaces to provide better healthcare services for their employees. A recent report was conducted by the Department of Work and Pensions' and led by Dame Carol Black, stated that more needs to be done to increase the support for employees and also do more to develop the health and wellbeing of employees.

Ann Greenwood, director business markets, BUPA Health Insurance said: "The rising popularity of workplace health benefits, particularly PMI, reflects changing attitudes to personal healthcare - people are now keen to have more control of their healthcare options rather than leaving them to chance. They want faster access to specialists and no waiting lists, but most of all they are concerned about hospital cleanliness, with almost three in every four citing clean hospitals as a key reason for buying PMI - up eight per cent on 2007.

"At Bupa, we work with 88 per cent of FTSE 100 companies as well as thousands of smaller businesses across the country. We know that companies are keen to play their part in keeping Britain healthy, but the current tax treatment of workplace health provision is an obstacle and a strong disincentive. Our own research of corporate clients shows that nine out of ten employers want to see support from the Government. Over half would invest more in employee health and wellbeing if fiscal disincentives were removed."

Bupa is on the leadership team of the Business Action on Health, a UK-wide initiative from the company Business in the Community (BitC). This company aims to promote business benefits of investing in employee health and is currently conducting an 18-month research project on healthcare provisions in the workplace, which is due for completion in summer next year. The research project aims to show evidence of the benefits of workplace health care provisions to individuals, companies, along with the UK economy and the heath care system

In related to health care in the work place, a recent report has stated that a majority of workers in the UK, that are entitled to free eye tests, which would be paid by their employers, do not ask for this entitlement. This is due to them being wary of being seen as, overbearing by other employees and their employers.