Independent healthcare
Independent sector’s role in ‘building better health’
Enabling the independent sector to invest and deliver more NHS services is essential to the success of the 10-Year Health Plan, says the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), as it calls for a major “step change” in how the NHS works with the private sector.
With NHS finances set to be severely restricted in the coming years, greater private investment and partnership with the independent healthcare sector will be “essential” to the implementation of the Government’s 10-Year Plan for Health, as well as their drive to reduce NHS waiting times, says the latest report from the IHPN. The independent healthcare sector’s support for the NHS in delivering frontline patient care is currently estimated to be equivalent to the activity of around 20 acute Trusts, with independent healthcare providers now removing more than one million patients from NHS waiting lists every year. But with new investment needed across all parts of the healthcare system to tackle waiting lists and to shift care into the community, the IHPN is calling for a major “step change” in how the NHS works with the private sector, to both unlock capital investment and to build further capacity. This includes a greater role for the independent sector in financing new premises and equipment, alongside the ongoing delivery of NHS services to increase capacity and productivity. IHPN’s report - ‘Building Better Health ’ has been co-authored with Future Health co- founder and former Department of Health and Social Care Special Adviser, Richard Sloggett. It calls for a “Strategic Council for Healthcare Infrastructure” to be established to provide cross-Government leadership and to accelerate efforts in bringing private investment into the NHS - including the development of new Neighbourhood Health Services, as well as building and running new services in historically “under-served” areas.
Alongside the NHS Confederation and NHS
Providers, IHPN also calls for the Treasury to clarify current accounting rules to expand public-private partnerships across the NHS, noting that the current complexity is seen by many NHS leaders as a blocker to further investment. Calling for an approach which goes “beyond bricks and mortar”, IHPN’s report highlights a number of areas where independent healthcare providers are already investing in both the development and running of new NHS services, including Community Diagnostics Centres where sites are open seven days per week and up to 14 hours per day, as well as new cancer centres and research hubs where NHS patients can access cutting edge
The independent healthcare sector’s support for the NHS in delivering frontline patient care is currently estimated to be equivalent to the activity of around 20 acute Trusts
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I March 2026
treatment and clinical trials. With the 10-Year Plan for Health committing to establish up to 300 new Neighbourhood Health Centres “in every community”, IHPN is also calling for the Government to explore the creation of a Neighbourhood Health Capital Fund which would enable the NHS to raise private capital investment to develop “Neighbourhood Health Services” across the country, with support from the independent sector. The report makes the following
recommendations: 1: HM Treasury should update Green Book guidance, to clarify the off–balance sheet capital investment mechanisms available to senior NHS leadership to stimulate public/private partnerships – particularly those which enable the independent sector to provide finance and deliver services on an ongoing basis. Updated guidance should refer to schemes, encompassing primary and community as well as secondary care where NHS providers have
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