The NHS 10 Year Health Plan

Yesterday, the NHS published its 10 Year Health Plan for England.

There was a rumour it would be delayed a few weeks to allow for the new life sciences strategy, but Pascal Soriot (CEO of AstraZeneca ) said he wants to move their listing from the FTSE to the US, so someone sensibly thought it wouldn’t be good timing.

If you haven’t already, you can read the government’s plan here (or the much shorter executive summary here).

So, the NHS plan?

Well, the meat of it feels strangely familiar. Strip away the refreshingly honest language about the need for change, and you’ll find the same core ambitions that have been present in virtually every NHS strategy since the 1990s: shifting care from hospitals to communities, embracing technology, and focusing on prevention rather than cure. The question isn’t whether these are the right goals—they demonstrably are and always have been. The question is, why should anyone believe this plan will succeed where its predecessors have struggled?

The technology maturity moment

The answer lies not in the plan itself, but in the technological landscape that finally makes these ambitions achievable, and at a commercial price that might be viable within the £200bn+ budget. We’ve reached what some call the “innovation inflection point”, the moment when multiple technologies mature simultaneously to create unprecedented opportunities for healthcare transformation.

The plan’s commitment to whole genome sequencing for every baby born in England, backed by £650 million in genomics investment, exemplifies this shift. This isn’t aspirational policy-making; it’s a concrete commitment enabled by the dramatic cost reduction in genomic sequencing over the past decade.

Imperial College London ’s recent report, “The Future State of Health and Healthcare in 2035,” identifies seven specific technologies that are reshaping the NHS. These are not distant possibilities requiring breakthrough discoveries, they are proven technologies ready for implementation.

• AI-powered diagnostics that can detect diseases months before symptoms appear, shifting us from episodic to continuous care
• Cloud-native infrastructure that enables the NHS App to become “England’s most essential digital tool”, through which 90% of healthcare interactions begin
• Wearable revolution that transforms your watch into a continuous health guardian, providing real-time monitoring, early warning systems, and personalised health guidance
• Universal genomic screening that will provide every child born in England with a genetic roadmap that guides healthcare decisions throughout their lifetime
• Breakthrough therapeutics like GLP-1 medications that could halve obesity rates while generating invaluable data on their broader health benefits
• Ambient AI that handles administrative tasks, saving each clinician 13.5 hours per week currently spent on paperwork
• Precision robotics that can increase hospital production by 21-26% while improving labour productivity by 29%

The plan’s vision of the NHS App as a “ChatGPT-like AI companion” with Amazon-style prescription would have been unheard of just a few years ago, and the nice thing about the app is it is as close as the NHS gets to reaching their ‘consumer’ directly with little need for Trust-level NHS politics or bureaucracy.

Consider the difference between today’s digital health toolkit and what was available during previous reform attempts. The NHS Long Term Plan of 2019 spoke enthusiastically about “digital-first” primary care, but the reality was clunky systems, limited interoperability, and patient portals that felt like afterthoughts.

From aspiration to implementation

The proposed ‘innovator passport’ system, allowing technology assessed by one NHS organisation to be rolled out to others, should start to address a persistent adoption challenge. Whether this will stop the ‘not invented here’ behaviours driven by local egos remains to be seen, but it’s a great principle. Previous plans had called for “technology-enabled care pathways,” but they lacked mechanisms to scale successful innovations. What’s different now is that we have proven exemplars of these working at scale. Look at Estonia’s e-health system, Denmark’s digital prescription service, or Singapore’s integrated health platforms. These aren’t pilots or proof-of-concepts; they’re mature, population-scale implementations delivering measurable outcomes.

More importantly, the private sector has solved many of the user experience challenges that plagued earlier NHS digital initiatives. When patients can seamlessly book restaurant reservations, manage their finances, and coordinate complex travel arrangements through intuitive mobile apps, the NHS can no longer excuse clunky interfaces or fragmented digital experiences.

The proposed AI early warning system for patient safety represents this convergence of technological capability and operational necessity. This isn’t theoretical innovation. It’s the practical application of proven AI technologies to address real NHS challenges.

The workforce multiplier effect

Previous NHS plans focused on workforce expansion, including training more doctors, recruiting more nurses, and increasing capacity. This plan, while still recognising workforce challenges, finally heeds the advice of Professor Mark Britnell from years ago, that the NHS can leverage technology as a true force multiplier.

AI-assisted diagnostics don’t just make radiologists faster; they enable entirely new models of distributed expertise.

Predictive analytics don’t just improve efficiency; they fundamentally change how we think about intervention timing.

The difference is profound. Earlier attempts at technological transformation required convincing healthcare professionals to adopt unfamiliar tools. Today’s innovations are increasingly designed to augment human expertise rather than replace it, making adoption more natural and outcomes more dramatic.

The private sector catalyst

Perhaps most significantly, the private sector innovation ecosystem supporting healthcare has never been more sophisticated, and if the Mansion House reforms ever take effect, it will be better capitalised.

In my role as an investor in HealthTech VCs, I’ve seen the speed at which high-quality solutions can reach the market is unrecognisable from just five years ago. The integration challenges that doomed previous NHS IT initiatives are being solved by companies with genuine healthcare expertise, substantial funding, and proven track records.

Although the UK venture capital market has faced challenges since 2021, it’s worth noting that over £2.3 billion was still invested in the HealthTech sector in the UK last year. This investment not only increases the quantity of innovation but also enhances its quality. Entrepreneurs who cut their teeth on successful consumer platforms are now turning their attention to healthcare, bringing both technical sophistication and user experience expectations that previous generations of health IT vendors lacked. The plan focuses on digital innovation, aligning with private sector capabilities in ways that previous strategies never achieved.

Implementation reality check

Of course, none of this guarantees success. Technology enables transformation, but it doesn’t automatically deliver it. The plan will still require unprecedented coordination across integrated care systems, sustained political commitment beyond electoral cycles, and cultural change throughout the NHS. The administrative restructuring, such as abolishing bodies like Healthwatch England and the National Guardian's Office , sounds like a helpful simplification, but in reality, the acid test will be whether clinicians and managers are pressured to adopt technology or revert to old ways of working because it feels less risky.

But let’s start the summer with a positive outlook. For the first time in decades, the technological foundation for NHS transformation is genuinely solid.

The innovations aren’t theoretical; they’re proven.

The user experience isn’t aspirational; it’s deliverable.

The integration challenges aren’t insurmountable; they’re being solved in real-time by companies with both the expertise and the commercial incentive to get them right.

The moment of truth

Now that the plan has been published, I am going to resist the natural temptation to dismiss it as “more of the same.” The strategies may echo those of previous decades, but the capability to deliver them has undergone fundamental change. The key issue isn’t whether the plan’s goals are worthy (they are); it’s whether the NHS will seize this unprecedented technological moment to fulfil promises that have been made over the past thirty years.

We are at a critical moment for innovation, and the plan acknowledges this. The only thing left now is the execution, only then will we see if the plan is truly ‘fit for the future’.