Spending review funding signals ambition but the next step requires collaboration
The government’s 2025 spending review sets out a significant NHS investment and reform agenda, £29bn in real-terms growth and £2.3bn in capital. This signals a renewed prioritisation of health at the heart of government strategy, but investment alone isn’t enough. The next step is a coordinated, cross-sector effort to turn funding into outcomes. Behind these headlines lies a deeper story for independent healthcare: a critical inflection point for collaboration, innovation and system integration.With waiting lists still at 7.4 million, acute NHS productivity 8% below pre-pandemic levels and a decisive shift from hospital to community care underway, the private sector has a strategic window to step forward, not just as a safety valve, but as a core partner in digital transformation, prevention and capacity-building.
Abolishing NHS England signals a break from legacy models. The £10bn digital and AI push, 2% annual NHS productivity targets, unified patient records as well as reforms to adult social care and primary care expansion all open space for agile, tech-enabled and community-aligned providers to lead.
However, meaningful progress demands collaboration between the NHS and the independent sector. To support this integration, the Treasury should consider targeted measures such as:
- Incentivising employer and employee use of private medical insurance
- Removing VAT on private medical care and services
- Removing the National Insurance Contribution increase requirements on GPs
The question isn’t if the independent sector has a role, it’s how proactively we shape it.