Gerard Hanratty, head of health and life sciences at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, explains how to make UK healthcare more attractive to overseas investors.
By now, the three big shifts set out in the 10 Year Health Plan – from hospital to community, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital – are well known in healthcare circles. What is less apparent is how we address the critical question: how to bridge the resource gap to make this vision reality.
The answer lies in creating an inward investment for UK healthcare that generates value for the public and ensures the NHS remains true to its founding principles while also securing long-term sustainability.
A new white paper from Browne Jacobson and Healthcare World provides the roadmap for unlocking this potential.
Developed with contributions from senior leaders at organisations including NHS England, NHS Confederation, Department for Business and Trade, and General Medical Council International, it offers eight comprehensive recommendations that could transform how international partnerships strengthen our health system in a careful and responsible manner.
It also highlights key barriers, such as regulatory complexity and fragmented procurement, which must be overcome to fully realise these opportunities.
Perfect storm meets the perfect opportunity
The NHS faces growing challenges: rising patient demand, workforce shortages, deteriorating infrastructure and constrained financial resources.
Yet its potential to attract high-quality inward investment remains largely untapped, despite the global healthcare landscape evolving to present opportunities for meaningful collaboration.
Meanwhile, the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy explicitly encourages the use of private sector capacity to support NHS service delivery in areas of high need and underperformance. It also commits to evolving infrastructure finance models by more closely integrating with the private sector.
The Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS should consider a smart investment strategy. This should go beyond financial contributions to leverage expertise, innovation and social impact to ensure sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships.
Welcoming investment in research, infrastructure, digital health and clinical trials can help to embed innovation within the NHS and ensure the health system contributes to the government’s broader missions.
This isn’t about privatisation – it’s about building collaborations that enhance services, benefit patients and the workforce, and strengthen the NHS to ensure it is fit for the future.
A smart investment strategy involves balancing responsibilities between the UK and investors to achieve meaningful returns that benefit both parties. Emphasis is placed on ensuring investments address social and economic goals, including technological advancement and improved healthcare systems.
Crucially, it means the investment will contribute to those three big shifts in the NHS 10 Year Plan.
Eight recommendations to transform NHS investment
The white paper’s recommendations provide a practical framework for implementing this smart investment strategy.
First of all, establish a comprehensive centralised repository of information to guide overseas suppliers on how to navigate the UK healthcare market and supply the NHS effectively. Develop both a unified NHS Front Door for investment to act as a single, centralised entry point for foreign investors to streamline engagement with the NHS, and a dedicated central business development unit within the NHS to manage trade and investment conversations consistently and bridge knowledge gaps in international commercial operations.
Next, the white paper recommends enhancing regulatory agility to attract medtech and digital health innovation with a focus on investment in the health sector, and establishing a structured framework for international investment to ensure private sector investment delivers tangible public benefits.
The government should develop a comprehensive healthcare workforce strategy that simplifies qualification recognition, ensures high professional standards, and supports cultural integration for international practitioners. At the same time, it must simplify NHS procurement processes between NHS organisations to attract and streamline investor engagement.
Finally, it must align inward investment with a UK health data strategy to unlock the value of NHS data assets and attract global investors.
With bold aspirations and targeted actions, the NHS has the opportunity to transform its capacity and innovation potential, driving better outcomes for patients, empowering healthcare professionals, improving the prevention of ill health and securing the future of the healthcare system for generations to come.
The 10 Year Health Plan has set the destination. Embracing strategic inward investment will be the vehicle that gets us there.
