What NHS England's Strategic and Operational Priorities outlined in the 2025/26 Annual Report Mean for Future Technology Adoption

Last week, NHS England released its Annual Report and Accounts for 2025/26. The NHS met its ambition for 65% of patients to receive elective treatment within 18 weeks, delivered a record 30 million diagnostic tests and reported estimated acute provider productivity growth of 2.8%. However, ambitions for timely cancer diagnosis and treatment, and for the proportion of patients seen within four hours in A&E, were narrowly missed.

Against this backdrop, the report reinforces the three strategic shifts set out in the NHS 10 Year Health Plan:

• Hospital to community: expanding neighbourhood services, virtual wards and community pharmacy to deliver more care closer to home and reduce avoidable hospital attendance and admission
• Analogue to digital: expanding electronic patient records, the NHS App, shared data platforms and digital communication to improve information flow, patient access, and coordination across services
• Sickness to prevention: strengthening proactive care, cardiovascular risk management, vaccination and screening to support earlier intervention

Together, these shifts point towards a more community-based, digitally enabled and prevention-focused model of care. This has implications not only for the types of healthcare innovation the NHS may prioritise, but also for where technologies are used and how they are integrated into care pathways.

For manufacturers, the report provides important context for how new technologies may be assessed, adopted and implemented. Key considerations may include:

• Where would the innovation sit within the care pathway? Map the proposed pathway position and engage relevant clinical, commissioning and operational stakeholders early to validate where the technology would be used
• How would it affect workflows and workforce requirements? Assess the impact on staff capacity, roles and service processes, working with pathway stakeholders to demonstrate that the technology can improve resource utilisation without introducing additional operational burden
• How would clinical, operational and financial benefits be demonstrated in routine practice? Develop a real-world evidence generation plan with clearly defined outcomes to demonstrate clinical impact, pathway efficiencies, resource use and financial value following adoption
• How would it support NHS policy and operational priorities? Demonstrate how the technology supports national policy objectives and operational goals, including the shift towards community-based care, digital transformation, prevention and productivity improvement

Ultimately, for manufacturers, the annual report reinforces the importance of an implementation-ready value proposition that clearly articulates a technology's clinical and economic value and defines its positioning within treatment pathways, and accounts for healthcare resource and infrastructural requirements for implementation.

Article by Murtaza Shahid

Source: NHS England. Annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026. Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-england-annual-report-and-accounts-2025-to-2026/

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