What does the future of healthcare look like?

The New Statesman hosted their annual Future of Healthcare Conference on 27 October, opening the conversation to leaders in academia, industry, and policy about the “existential brink” the NHS is at. The NHS 10 Year Plan, published in July 2025, proposes three major shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. 

Our Future Health

Healthy life expectancy, the average number of years a person is expected to live in good health, has fallen by two years over the past decade in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. The aging population, increasing incidence of multi-morbidity, aggravated by deprivation and the rise in work-limiting health conditions among young people are increasing the pressure on an already overburdened National Health System.

“By the time people come to A&E it’s too late, certainly for a cure, but even for a good outcome,” remarked Dr Raghib, Chief Executive and Chief Medical Officer of Our Future Health. 

Our Future Health is a research programme that proposes a model that focuses on prediction and prevention. A widely recognised problem in disease detection is patient-to-patient symptom variations: Our Future Healthcare are working to establish an evidence base by building the largest prospective cohort study in the world, with more than 2.5 million participants enrolled and a goal to reach 5 million. 

“It’s well known that about 80% of what affects people’s health outcomes lies outside the health system; historically, it was quite difficult to get that data,” said Dr Ali. Our Future Health will combine multiple sources of health-related data to better understand predictors of disease, hoping to show how early diagnosis and treatment can prevent the most common health issues.

Neighbourhood Health

One of the major shifts proposed in the 10 Year Plan was that from hospital to community. More than 90% of patients’ direct interfacing with the NHS occurs via primary care and GP practices, but NHS spending on primary care keeps on dropping as the share spent on acute services, such as hospitals, grows.

Baroness Clare Gerad, DBE PRCGP FRCPsych, and former Chair and President of the RCGP, called for shifting resources from hospitals and into the community, and emphasised the importance of continuity of care.

“If we’re going to deliver the ambitions in the 10-Year Health Plan, then neighbourhood health would be at the heart of that,” echoed Dr Anna Dixon MBE MP, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Carers and the APPG on Housing and Care for Older People.

Closing the cancer outcomes gap

“[There is a] false dichotomy between acute and community [care],” said Naser Turabi, Director of Health Policy and Evidence and Cancer Research UK. “For rare and less common cancers, the absolute priority is making sure we have a balanced strategy.”

Rare or less common cancers make up a disproportionate number of cancer-related deaths, and have seen limited improvements for decades.

“Brain tumours and other rare cancers are a real test of the governments’ ambitions: not just the commitments, but their implementation,” said Dr Michele Afif, Chief Executive of The Brain Tumour Charity. “The system is designed around common disease and common cancer, quite rightly, but it needs to change.” 

One-off and recurring pressures on the NHS are predicted to result in a funding shortfall. “It’s about the slightly uncomfortable, unpalatable point, that in order to see progress in some areas, you need preferential, tactical, strategic planning,” said Dr Afif.

 The slightly uncomfortable, unpalatable point that in order to see progress (...) you need preferential, tactical, strategic planning

Fast, but slowing down for corners: AI 

“If you have a significant, transformative invention coming in, it is not surprising that the system struggles to digest it” remarked Professor Alastair Denniston, Chair of the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, in his Building Trust in AI-powered healthcare keynote speech.

Reflections on how AI as a technology and a health tool differ from any other we have seen filled the room: “Unlike any other technology out there, we have a bimodal response to AI. We have a trough in the middle, and massive enthusiasts, and massive sceptics”. Professor Denniston also commented on our need to correctly apply this technology: “There needs to be system readiness, and we need to apply this technology where we need it, not where it’s most convenient to.”

Audience questions focused on dilemmas like the question of “who do we hold responsible?” when it comes to mistakes relating AI-assisted medical devices. The Chair responded recognising this is recurrent in their work, and assures the current way of acknowledging responsibility is “not so different to what we already have for imperfect diagnostic tests”. 

Women’s Health

“Improving women’s health has been my life’s mission,” said Baroness Geeta Nargund, Honorary Professor of Women’s Health at the University of London and former consultant gynaecologist.  

“Women’s health is not just obstetrics and gynaecological health. It is right from the beginning to end of life care.”

“Maternity services are in crisis. Maternal mortality rates are rising,” said Laura Mullarkey, legal lead at Birthrights, a charity protecting human rights during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care. Mullarkey cited systemic racism and discrimination, and failure to listen to women and their families, findings echoed by Baroness Amos in her report.

Many NHS home birth services are being restricted, suspended, or interrupted. Baroness Nargund cited safety issues in home birth teams, expressing hope to improve home birth services before offering them again.

“I would really caution against using safety as a nebulous shroud to prevent us from examining what is causing the issues,” said Mullarkey. “If people are choosing to birth at home, the NHS needs to be thinking really carefully about [prioritising] the right, safe support.”

Mental Health

The last talk of the day saw a much emptier audience, but one that was no less passionate about the topic at hand as those before. Amongst the five panellists were Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Mental Health Dr Danny Chambers and Rebecca Gray, Director of the NHS Alliance’s Mental Health Network, as the conversation focused on discussing how to deliver effective, sustainable support. 

The idea (and consequences) of mental health being shaped by the environment we live in, which includes injustice and inequality, was a major topic of conversation. “[From] social media addiction [to] the climate crisis, you don’t have to suffer of a mental illness to mentally struggle with where things are heading”, commented Dr Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive of major UK mental health charity Mind. 

“The best evidence we have is listening to young people – if we are listening to pounds and cents and things we can count, well, we’ve failed before we’ve even started”, remarked Rebecca Gray as the question of using finances as an indicator for NHS mental health service quality was raised.