The 10 Year Plan

The 10 Year Plan

A focus on healthtech and innovation 

Headlining the 10 Year Plan, and much trailed since its inclusion as a recommendation in the Darzi review, is the need for the NHS to move from analogue to digital. Unsurprisingly given this focus, the Plan promotes the adoption of innovation and healthtech in several contexts. Healthtech also underpins ideas enabling the other two shifts – from hospital to community, and sickness to prevention.  

A review of the totality of the ‘tech’ proposals in the Plan would be lengthy, so here we have pulled out just a few of the key ideas and initiatives, and what they mean for NHS buyers and tech suppliers and innovators. There is something in there for everyone – from start-ups to scale-ups to established multinationals, alongside their tech-focussed counterparts working within the NHS. 

Big picture

• Analogue to digital – the NHS lags behind other sectors, including private health, when it comes to exploiting digital technology. From a patient’s perspective this makes the system confusing and difficult to navigate. Internally it throws up issues from many angles – inefficient systems and processes overall, lack of joined up care planning and oversight, inefficient working practices preventing clinical staff from spending time with their patients, and many more. The plan includes numerous proposals to overcome these issues, from systemic enablers, such as the introduction of a single patient record platform, to individual tools such as wearable monitoring devices - some of which are mentioned below. 

• Ambition – in line with other recent strategy releases, such as the UK Modern Industrial Strategy, the Plan reveals ambition that the NHS will not only catch up, but will lead when it comes to data, digital tools and health apps. The expectation is that wherever appropriate, access to care will become ‘digital by default’. 

• The other big shifts – technology also features heavily in plans for the other two shifts, for example the expansion of virtual wards enabling more care to remain in community settings, and genomic sequencing and wearable devices providing information enabling ill health to be ‘treated’ before it progresses. 

• Local support networks – the plan confirms that the 15 existing Health Innovation Networks will continue to be funded and supported, to help tech adoption in the NHS. In addition, the Plan proposes to introduce Regional Health Innovation Zones, with 2- 3 regions initially selected as trailblazers, to experiment, test and generate evidence on implementing innovation..  

Some constituent parts 

The government is making five “big bets” on technology and innovation – data, AI genomics, wearables and robotics. From a tech perspective the main proposals are:

• Data - is discussed in detail in the Innovation chapter which refers to it as a ‘lifeblood’ for AI algorithms, ‘raw material’ for genomic advances, and ‘context’ for wearable insights. The need for data to be interoperable is also acknowledged. Plans for legal reform to allow for health data to be used to improve the NHS and for research that benefits its patients are mentioned, but with confirmation that data ownership will remain with the patient or the NHS. Longer term the potential for generating commercial value from anonymous health data, will be explored.
  Linked to this is the Health Data Research Service which was already announced government in April 2025, but reiterated as part of the plan. This platform will be developed in partnership with the Wellcome Trust using £600 million of joint investment. It will make deidentified data available to scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs.

• Single Patient Record – will be developed as a ‘secure and authoritative’ account of individual patients’ health data accessible to patients (a ‘patient passport’) and a wide range of clinicians including in hospital, community and neighbourhood care, paramedics and community pharmacies. Legislation will place a duty on health and care providers to make information available to patients via the NHS App. 

• NHS App – flagged as a ‘doctor in your pocket’ and a ‘full front door’ to the NHS by 2028, the Plan details a wide range of developments for the app. This includes personalised patient guidance including via AI, patient choice functions, the ability to self-refer, remote consultations and feedback, repeat prescription management, storage of patient monitoring data and measurements from wearables, access for parents and carers to others’ health records, and, in time, a link to services outside of the NHS such as social care, the voluntary sector and local government. 

• AI – wide-ranging applications for artificial intelligence are unsurprisingly detailed in the Plan across areas including administration and ambient AI clinical note-taking, diagnostics and drug discovery. There will be investment in AI infrastructure over the next 3 years, an AI strategic roadmap for ethical and governance frameworks, and an AI upskilling programme for the NHS workforce. A new regulatory framework for medical devices, including AI will be published in 2026. 

• Robotics – this is the last of the ‘five big bets to drive healthcare reform’ specified in the Innovation chapter which notes that robots have already transformed surgery, and in future will be used in expanded application – continuous monitoring, rehabilitation and prosthetic limbs. 

What does this mean for NHS buyers of healthtech?

Buyers of technology at all levels of the new operating model will need to ensure they are ready to procure the technology proposed. This may involve collaboration with other system partners, and streamlining their internal functions. 

In due course, there will also be a need to understand the new procurement routes suggested (see “Where next?” below).

What does his mean for tech suppliers and innovators?

The Plan has a welcome focus on vendors as “collaborators” and not just “sellers” and the five “big bets” and other technology proposals will undoubtedly offer opportunities for tech suppliers. 

There is an intention to support innovation and some ideas proposed may help with this, for example the introduction of Regional Heath Innovation Zones and the references to “commercial support” being provided. 
As ever, however, the key challenge will be in adopting tech and other innovation. The proposals to unlock procurement – see “Where next?” below – could be significant but we will need to see the detail.

Where next? 

The Plan confirms commitment to driving innovation rather than stifling it, and views suppliers selling into the NHS as collaborators. It signals an intention to ‘streamline procurement of technology’ with clearer procurement routes mentioned in various areas, for example: 

• an ‘innovator passport’ scheme to be introduced over the next 2 years meaning that technology which has been ‘robustly assessed’ by one NHS organisation can be rolled out easily to others;

• the value-based procurement methodology for medtech and digital devices;

• the NHS Healthstore to host approved apps evaluated by NICE and procured once via an NHS central budget;

• a framework procurement process for Ambient AI which can then be accessed by NHS organisations and GPs; and

• a national procurement for a new neighbourhood health platform available to all NHS organisations. See our article for more information on this.

Given that the Plan’s implementation chapter is yet to be published, details of precisely how and when the NHS is going to achieve its plans around healthtech and innovation require clarification, however there are some clear indications and potential opportunities for healthtech innovators at all stages of development. 

Please keep an eye on our website for more detailed information in key areas over coming months.