As we head into a New Year, Highland founders Mark and Susan Venables reflect on the NHS and health tech trends of 2025 and consider which of them are likely to be played forward into 2026.

Will the government’s big reform plans or NHS England’s focus on finances and targets win out? Either way, suppliers will need to be agile and to find the right partner to find, convince, and grow.

On the face of it, 2025 should have been a great year for healthcare technology. The UK went into the year with a new government that was keen to talk up the prospect of reform and the potential of digital to transform the NHS, support patients, and boost the economy.

And over the course of the year, there were headlines that were positive for the sector. In the summer, the comprehensive spending review promised a £29 billion real-terms increase for the NHS over the next three years, and “up to £10 billion allocated towards technology and digital transformation.”

After which, the 10 Year Health Plan was launched, with its call for a shift from analogue to digital, significant investment in a new single patient record and the NHS App, and five big “bets” on AI, genomics, wearables, robotics, and joined-up data.

However, beneath the headlines there were trends that were far less helpful. For a start, there was the unexpected and under-funded abolition of NHS England, which was announced as a shake-up of integrated care boards was already underway.

Meanwhile, the new chief executive of NHS England, Sir James Mackey, arrived with a clear remit to get a handle on NHS finances. As a result, trusts launched savings programmes that impacted so-called ‘back office’ function; and there was much less progress than might have been expected on A&E, corridor care, or waiting list reduction.

The result was uncertainty and stress, not least in IT departments, where our advisory board argued that “morale is on the floor.” There was activity in the electronic patient record market, as the end of the frontline digitisation programme came into view, and in pathology and imaging, as the network agenda was completed.

Trusts showed interest in AI and ambient voice technology, but faced significant funding, regulatory, and practical obstacles when it came to adoption. Elsewhere, the market slowed and there were signs of consolidation in some areas, such as remote care, where platforms rather than solutions are becoming the norm.

Two competing trends: reform and retrenchment  

The prospects for healthcare technology in 2026 will depend on whether the reform agenda gathers pace or the NHS stays focused on short term priorities. There are reasons to think that the first may happen.

Ahead of the October Budget, the Treasury finally agreed a deal to let the redundancies at NHS England and integrated care boards go ahead. So, by the start of the new financial year, there should be clarity on how these revamped organisations will operate and the most ambitious will be looking to make their mark.

After a very difficult winter, trusts should also have some breathing space to think about how to respond to the changing policy environment. For trusts, 2026 will mean more scrutiny and more league tables, but also new freedoms, including the ability to bid for advanced foundation trust status and an integrated health organisation contract to hold the budget for a whole area.

As the roll-out of EPRs nears its completion, trusts will look to drive value from their investment, with a focus on improving the productivity of their workforce and the efficiency of their operations.

And those trusts moving into the IHO space are also going to be interested in tools to develop new, digital pathways, and in solutions that can deliver a ‘left shift’ into the community and prevention, to get the most out of the budget available to them.

Unfortunately, there are also reasons for caution. When the 10 Year Health Plan was published, it was missing its delivery chapter. The nearest thing to it is NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework, which came out in the autumn, and set out the NHS’ “to do list” for the next three years.

The MTPF makes it clear that money will remain super-tight in 2026 and the immediate priority for spending what is available will be access and waiting lists. So, while it also says the NHS should try to lay the “foundations” for reform, it doesn’t suggest this will be the focus for investment ahead of the next election.

It’s also worth noting that the MTPF expects the centre to exert a strong “grip” on NHS IT. It says commissioners and trusts should be looking to deploy national products, communicate through the NHS App, and adopt the tools associated with the Federated Data Platform.

None of that is likely to be good news for suppliers with competing solutions or innovative ideas in the same space. It’s also unclear what impact the promised digital hospital, NHS Online, will have on digital outpatients, remote monitoring, and digital therapeutics.

There is opportunity, but suppliers need a new approach to seize it

To succeed in this complex environment, health and med tech suppliers will need to step up. Simply trying to sell a service, product or idea to the NHS has rarely been easy, and today suppliers will need to start from where their customers are.

They need to show they are aligned with NHS policy, understand the operating environment, and can solve the problems it creates for customers on the ground. They need to show they can deliver, by meeting regulatory requirements, using key standards, interoperating with core systems, and being ready to deploy with limited resources and minimal disruption.

Creative ideas about affordability, solid evidence of impact, and the endorsement of early adopters don’t hurt, either. But to communicate all that to a service under stress, traditional marketing and PR activity is not going to cut it.

It is no longer enough to generate a slide deck, send out a brochure, whip some “thought leadership” about “billions for health tech” or “transformation,” or set up a trade show stand and hope the right people walk by.

Instead, suppliers need a thorough analysis of the market, so they can find the right people to talk to, and then take laser-focused messaging and demonstrations to them. That’s why, in October, Highland Marketing became Highland.

We recognised that what health tech suppliers need to navigate the complex, digital landscape of 2026 and beyond is not a marketing, PR and content agency, but a growth partner.

Of course, we still use marketing and PR techniques. We see a particular role for well-targeted media activity, to celebrate success, create proof points, and ensure visibility in the changing search and social media landscape. But now we wrap them into a model that includes innovative new services focused on securing business.

Work with Highland to find, convince and grow

Predictions can be a mug’s game in a sector like digital health. But as we head into 2026, some things are clear. The previous 12 months were far tougher than expected for the NHS and its health tech suppliers, and the next 12 are uncertain.

We could see a resolution of some of the challenges that 2025 has thrown up, and a renewed focus on reform and investment. Or we could see more of the same limited finance, retrenchment, and constant focus on targets.

There will be opportunities in either scenario. Even struggling trusts need productivity tools or digital solutions that will engage a tired workforce or improve patient satisfaction. While it’s entirely possible that the government will seek to reboot its NHS reform agenda with a “big” digital announcement.

But to grasp the business on offer, suppliers will need to be agile, and they will need the right partner. One that can help them to find, convince, and grow.