Welcome to the latest edition of the Atticus Partners Health Newsletter: The Waiting Room. It reflects on 2025 as a pivotal year for health policy, assessing how early reform efforts have landed, and looks ahead to the political and operational pressures that will shape the NHS over the year ahead.
A look back at 2025
Reflecting on 2025, the healthcare sector navigated a year shaped by the interplay between long term strategic ambition and ongoing operational pressures. If the preceding year focused on articulating the scale of the challenges facing the NHS, 2025 marked a period in which initial reform measures began to be implemented, alongside a concerted effort by the Government to demonstrate early progress on access and performance.
Ministers consistently highlighted signs of improvement in frontline capacity. By the end of the year, more than five million additional appointments had been delivered since the start of the Parliament, and the elective waiting list, while still historically high, was beginning to edge downwards. The Government framed this as evidence that its approach to recovery was starting to take effect, supported by the creation of 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres and a renewed focus on improving productivity and efficiency across the service.
Central to this agenda was the July launch of the 10 Year Health Plan, which set out a refreshed national strategy built around three core objectives. These were shifting care from hospitals into community settings, accelerating the transition from analogue to digital, and placing greater emphasis on prevention.
The introduction of neighbourhood health centres became one of the most visible policy developments, with the aim of bringing together primary care, mental health services and social support at a local level. Alongside this, the Government advanced a more pragmatic approach to digital reform, focusing on the integration of the NHS App as a central access point for services. By the end of the year, the app had begun to operate as a more personalised health record, although the Department of Health and Social Care’s December Insight Report indicated that progress remained uneven, with variability in the readiness of infrastructure and system interoperability across the service.
Access to care nevertheless continued to be a prominent concern for patients. The elective waiting list remained elevated, fluctuating around 7.4 million for much of the year. Public engagement data showed persistent difficulties in securing timely care. 68% of respondents reported challenges accessing GP services, 62% experienced delays in A and E, and 53% reported delays in onward referrals. This gap between the Government’s narrative of recovery and the lived experience of patients continued to shape perceptions of NHS performance during the latter part of 2025.
Workforce pressures also remained a defining feature of 2025. Surveys indicated that 80% of staff reported ongoing shortages, while 58% highlighted high turnover rates. Many staff continued to report concerns relating to workload, morale and wellbeing. The year concluded with renewed industrial action, including a five-day strike by resident doctors in late December. The dispute evolved to encompass issues beyond pay, including specialty training capacity and career progression. The Government emphasised patient safety considerations, with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, highlighting the risks associated with industrial action during an already challenging winter period.
Against this backdrop, the Chancellor’s announcement at the Spending Review of £29 billion in additional funding for the NHS underscored the service’s status as a political priority for the Government. The scale of the investment was framed as a decisive step towards rebuilding the health service and sustaining reform momentum. Yet while the funding commitment was widely welcomed across the sector, it also sharpened expectations and scrutiny around delivery. Many healthcare leaders cautioned that translating investment into tangible improvements would remain difficult amid workforce constraints, ageing estates and rising demand.
In response to winter pressures on the NHS, particularly given the recent wave of ‘super flu’, the Government announced a package of short-term resilience measures in late December and early January, including additional operational funding for urgent and emergency care, expanded use of virtual wards, and renewed emphasis on vaccination uptake amid elevated flu prevalence. Ministers also signalled an intention to re-engage with workforce representatives in early 2026, alongside further detail on workforce planning and training capacity later in the year.
Taken together, these announcements were framed as stabilising interventions rather than structural reform, underlining the continued reliance on tactical measures to manage demand while longer-term workforce and service transformation remains in progress.
As the NHS begins 2026, workforce capacity and retention remain central factors in determining how effectively the reforms initiated in 2025 translate into sustained improvements in frontline care. Delivering on this, and driving improvements that are visible to voters, will be crucial in improving the Government’s current political position.
Look ahead
Looking ahead, health policy is set to remain a central pillar of the Government’s political agenda in 2026. The Government is placing considerable emphasis on ensuring that recent funding commitments begin to deliver visible improvements in access, performance and patient experience, both to demonstrate policy momentum and to secure public confidence.
Delivering tangible progress on both the 3 shifts of the 10-Year Plan as well as addressing key voter concerns such as waiting times, waiting lists, and patient experience and quality of care will be some of the dominant themes within this.
In the immediate term, the NHS continues to grapple with continued pressures in hospitals linked to seasonal flu and winter viruses, which will dominate resources and capacity over the remaining winter months.
These pressures were compounded by industrial action towards the end of 2025. Following this, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care reiterated his commitment to avoiding further strike action in 2026. Maintaining workforce stability will be critical to delivering any near-term progress on elective recovery.
There are signs that Streeting will have the public’s backing after a poll in December found that 58% of those asked either somewhat or strongly opposed the industrial action compared to 33% who were somewhat or strongly in favour. This may reflect growing public fatigue with disruption and appointment cancellations.
Meeting this challenge will be central to the Government’s ability to demonstrate momentum on reducing waiting lists, though doing so against a backdrop of constrained workforce capacity remains a significant test.
Set piece health moments in 2026
Beyond managing immediate pressures, 2026 will include several major health policy milestones.
One key moment will be the publication of Phase 1 of Baroness Louise Casey’s Commission into social care, expected later in the year. The Commission has been tasked with producing pragmatic, phased recommendations capable of implementation over a decade.
The Government has emphasised the importance of building durable, cross-party consensus around social care reform. However, critics continue to argue that many solutions are already well understood and that further delay risks entrenching existing pressures.
Debate around the Assisted Dying Bill is also set to continue in 2026. The legislation, currently under scrutiny in the House of Lords, would permit assisted dying for terminally ill adults under defined safeguards. If the Bill progresses, a further parliamentary vote is likely later in the year, representing a significant moment for health and social policy. However, its passage remains uncertain, and the issue is expected to continue shaping political and media discourse.
Finally, the COVID-19 Inquiry will continue its work into 2026. Following the publication of its second report in November, which criticised aspects of the Government’s pandemic response, final public hearings are scheduled for early 2026. As these conclude, attention will increasingly turn to how lessons from the inquiry are reflected in future preparedness and resilience planning.
These, and various other set piece moments, will be major moments across 2026 that all observers will be keeping a close eye on.
For more information about Atticus Partners’ work in the health sector or if you have any questions about how we can support you, particularly engaging with the Labour Government, please contact health@atticuscomms.com