The Health Tech Alliance has issued a compelling call for reform in NHS procurement processes, underscoring the urgent need to streamline and modernise how health technologies are acquired across the health service. In their report titled “Unlocking innovation: recommendations for transforming NHS health tech procurement,” published in July 2025, the Alliance—an informal coalition comprising health technology companies, NHS stakeholders, and policy experts—sets out a detailed roadmap aimed at creating a procurement system that is more transparent, efficient, and conducive to innovation. This initiative aligns closely with the NHS’s recently announced 10 Year Health Plan, unveiled earlier in July 2025, which introduces standardised value-based procurement guidance for devices and digital products, set to be implemented from early 2026.
Value-based procurement, central to these reforms, shifts the focus away from merely minimising upfront costs toward optimising the whole-life cost of healthcare technologies. This approach evaluates financial impact alongside efficiency, patient outcomes, and environmental benefits, thereby aiming to deliver better long-term value for the NHS and improved care for patients.
Dame Barbara Hakin, chair of the Health Tech Alliance and former deputy chief executive of NHS England, emphasised the significance of this shift during the report’s launch. She highlighted the need for a “smarter, more strategic approach to equipping the NHS” that prioritises high-impact technologies and fosters closer collaboration between policymakers, health system leaders, and the health tech sector. “Our report brings together the voices of clinicians, industry, and NHS leaders to provide a practical roadmap for procurement reform—one that will prioritise innovation and ultimately ensure better care for patients,” Dame Hakin said.
One of the key insights from the report is the acknowledgement of how existing procurement pathways are hampered by excessive bureaucracy and fragmentation, which delay the adoption of technologies with the potential to improve patient outcomes. The report advocates for several critical reforms to address these inefficiencies. These include streamlining central procurement processes to reduce administrative burdens, establishing a central portal and knowledge hub to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and innovators, and enhancing early engagement and knowledge sharing across NHS organisations.
Further recommendations target structural reforms such as ring-fencing innovation budgets at both trust and integrated care system (ICS) levels, improving coordination and consistency across ICSs to reduce fragmentation, and investing in education and training for procurement teams to cultivate a culture of innovation and value-based decision-making.
The recommendations are the culmination of workshops held between July 2024 and February 2025, which convened representatives from the health tech industry, central health bodies, and local procurement leads. This consultative process was designed to identify current bottlenecks and collaboratively develop more agile and efficient procurement pathways.
In support of these initiatives, Baroness Gillian Merron, the health minister for patient safety, women’s health, and mental health, announced in February 2025 at the Health Tech Alliance’s Parliament and HealthTech Conference that pilots testing simplified procurement guidance are already underway in several NHS trusts. This guidance framework aims to ensure a consistent and comprehensive approach across the NHS by incorporating factors such as patient safety, impact on care pathways, and productivity into procurement decisions. The method is slated for a full launch within 2025, reinforcing the government’s commitment to the reform agenda.
Beyond these immediate steps, the Health Tech Alliance continues to play an influential role through its engagement in broader policy consultations and strategy developments. For example, it has provided detailed responses to government initiatives such as the NHS NICE consultation on building integrated medtech pathways and the “Get Britain Working” employment strategy. The Alliance also welcomed the government’s “MedTech Strategy: One Year On” review, noting the progress in establishing more streamlined innovation pathways, including pilot schemes like the Innovative Devices Access Pathway and the Health Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund. Dame Barbara Hakin highlighted these initiatives in a statement in April 2025, remarking on the forward momentum while acknowledging the need for ongoing efforts to cement these frameworks.
Moreover, the Alliance’s written evidence submission to the UK Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee further underscores the need for prioritising value-based procurement over short-term cost savings, calling for greater flexibility in budgetary spending and reducing fragmentation through standardised contract specifications. The Alliance also points to industry-led efforts where suppliers take on training and upskilling responsibilities for NHS staff, suggesting such collaborative approaches could be expanded.
Taken together, these developments signal a clear and strategic push across multiple levels of the health system to modernise procurement, reduce inefficiencies, and accelerate the adoption of innovative health technologies. This reform agenda holds the promise of delivering not only financial savings but also improved patient care and better environmental sustainability within the NHS. The Health Tech Alliance’s report and ongoing advocacy efforts provide a vital roadmap and momentum towards realising these ambitions in the years ahead.
Source: Noah Wire Services
Subscribe to Industry Updates
