Sector spotlight
This episode forms part of our Clinical Services Ones to Watch report, shining a light on successful clinical services businesses improving access, efficiency, and patient outcomes across the UK healthcare sector.
Operating at the intersection of public need, private innovation and policy reform, clinical services providers are navigating a system of significant change, challenge and opportunity. Demand is rising, expectations are shifting, and partnerships with the NHS are evolving in scope and scale.
At the same time, the sector continues to show strong momentum. Providers are adapting to policy change, expanding capacity and exploring new models of delivery – including the growing private-pay market – positioning themselves to play an increasingly central role in the future of UK healthcare.
Watch and listen to the full conversation:
Five key takeaways from the conversation:
With NHS England’s organisational changes, the release of the NHS 10-year plan, shifting planning frameworks and growing pressure on budgets and waiting times, providers are operating in a period of significant and sustained uncertainty.
The evolving landscape has created challenges around planning, contracting, and forecasting demand. It also creates the basis for a more integrated, collaborative system, with independent sector capacity set to play a larger role in tackling waiting lists and elective care pressures.
Pressure across NHS pathways have accelerated the need for high-quality independent provision, from diagnostics to mental health and elective procedures. Private providers have demonstrated their ability to deliver:
- high-volume services
- efficient models of care
- flexible capacity that helps reduce bottlenecks in the system.
This expanding partnership model is becoming more normalised.
Patient behaviour is shifting fast as younger generations – driven by convenience and changing attitudes towards health management – choose to access healthcare privately.
Employers are also investing more heavily in workforce health, creating sustained demand for occupational health and wellbeing services, many of which have become digital, more accessible, and preventative since the pandemic.
For traditionally NHS-focused providers, this creates a compelling diversification opportunity.
The Government’s 10-year plan places emphasis on three major shifts:
- hospital to community
- analogue to digital
- sickness to prevention
Technology threads through all three, with digital tools viewed as essential to expanding capacity and enabling more personalised, efficient care.
The neighbourhood health programme offers an exciting new approach, but contracting and delivery frameworks, and expectations, are still evolving.
Despite uncertainty, the conversation is optimistic. The market fundamentals – demographic changes, rising demand, and a more blended public/private ecosystem – point toward long-term opportunity for clinical services providers.
Businesses entering or expanding in the sector are increasingly exploring dual NHS and direct-to-consumer models, innovating through tech-enabled delivery and attracting investment to scale capacity and improve patient experience.
M&A activity is strengthening year on year, reflecting the sector’s resilience and investor confidence.
Our panel
Ryan Dearman - Corporate Finance Director, Grant Thornton UK
David Hare MBE - Chief Executive, Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN)
Jill Mason - Partner, Head of Health and Care Sector, Mills & Reeve
Mark Jackson - Chairman, Psychiatry UK