The UK private market was forecast to grow from 11.8bn USD in 2017 to 13.8bn USD by the end of 2023. A 40% increase in private hospital capacity in London is expected between 2018-2023, showing the interest from the UK parliament to accept new health providers apart from their excellent “NHS”. This increase, along with COVID, comes with a change in the behaviour and opinion towards the private healthcare system. The “Institute of Public Policy Research” found that 17% of the population would go to private if they knew the waiting was longer than 18 weeks; 59% of them declared that would not go because they can not afford it, while only the 10% would not go to private healthcare. Showing that the majority of the population would accept privates if are possible to afford them.

With 59% of the population willing to attend to the private system, but unable to afford it, health insurance providers play a significant role in access to it. The UK’s Health Insurance Market is estimated at 151.8bn USD in 2022 and is expected to reach 245.7bn USD by 2027, growing at 10.1% per year. While there are iconic players with a long history in the market such as “BUPA” or “AXA PPP”, the entry of new enterprises such as “Freedom Health” (2003) came to make the market more dynamic. While 100% of the population is covered by the “NHS”, in 2020 only 10.5% of them carried voluntarilly supplemental insurance to gain more rapid access to elective care, and perspectives for growth are positive.

Innovation in Healthcare Sector

Health care in the UK would not be as renowned as it is today if it were not for their innovations, technological adoptions, and the free cooperation between governments and companies. In September 2021, the UK government announced plans to add an average of £12 billion per year for health and social care over the next 3 years. On another front, venture capitalist investment in digital health saw an almost 300% rise between 2017 and 2020. As a result, the flow of innovation shows no signs of slowing and is accelerating. Finding efficient go-to-market strategies and leveraging next-generation commercial models is key to driving innovation adoption.

For example, virtual healthcare models are evolving from purely “virtual urgent care” to different services enabling virtual care. The challenge for healthcare professionals in 2022, is to keep up – adapting the innovations and technologies to local demands, and paying attention to human issues as well as technology will prove the difference between success and failure.

In 2021, the NHS introduced virtual wards and remote monitoring at 92 sites across England, to allow for safe hospital discharge of COVID patients. Although initially designed purely for this purpose, these virtual wards began to be successfully implemented to ease pressure on NHS staff, allowing for remote care for many patients from the safety of their own homes.

These technological advances come to help what companies international companies have been doing, such as the case of “Air Liquide Healthcare”. A subsidiary of the French group “Air Liquide”, “Healthcare” has been present in the UK and working with the “NHS” for more than 15 years, and nowadays supports more than 25.000 patients along their treatments. They provide medical oxygen and equipment to vulnerable people, the control tasks and maintenance that took days, are now almost at the moment thanks to connectivity within the system that allows fast communications between patients, doctors, and equipment providers.

But not only large companies take profits from new policies and innovation. The UK health tech investment has reached 3.8bn USD, a growth of 9 times since 2016, turning London, Cambridge, and Oxford into the hub of the European healthcare revolution. The UK’s top health tech startups are “Huma”, “Cera”, “DnaNudge”, and “LabGenius”, among others.

Do not want to miss the opportunity to be part of the crescent British healthcare market. Do not hesitate to contact Transfer.LC your global business specialist.