Meeting major challenges in the NHS ahead of NHS ConfedExpo
How the NHS ConfedExpo agenda highlights growing challenges and opportunities in UK market access
This June, National Health Service (NHS) movers and shakers will gather at the NHS ConfedExpo to shape the future of patient care across the UK. This year, Mary Baker (Senior Medical Writer, Petauri Evidence) examined the agenda to see what it says about the future of the NHS.
The agenda at NHS Confed
The agenda for the NHS Confed this June makes interesting reading and gives you a strong idea about where focus remains for the issues facing the NHS. It promises to be a good conference, and though I can’t attend I will be pumping our very own Hannah Palin (Local Value and Strategy Practice Lead, Petauri Evidence) and Ben Spurr (Partnerships Director, Market Access) for information on their return. As you’d expect, there is a lot on artificial intelligence (AI) (more than 10 talks) but even more on neighbourhood health (nearly 40 scheduled sessions) and much about NHS reform. There are also multiple discussions around equity and equality, mental health, and digital/data (with commendable panache from whichever Hot Fuzz fan named one talk ‘The data good’).
Four particular sessions stood out to me (for reasons explained below), from which I will be begging Hannah to return with good notes:
NHS modernisation: Improving patient outcomes through medicines and vaccines (Wednesday 10th June)
This Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)-sponsored talk fits the moment. After Wes Streeting’s raft of measures announced in December, we now (as of April) enter an era of a higher cost-effectiveness threshold than previously across England and Wales. It’s a hot issue: there’s a concurrent talk on innovative medicines, and another on the US–UK pharmaceutical deal later in the day, which are likely to have some overlap.
However, opinions differ. While some pharmaceutical companies struggled to bring prices low enough for the pre-April threshold and will welcome this change, other voices express concern about what the threshold really means: more resources in one place means less in another. Wherever you land, the key factors are collaboration and preparation. We always see the best outcomes for companies, patients, and the NHS when the company arrives fully prepared to have meaningful and transparent discussions with bodies such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Transforming diagnostics together: How national partnerships are accelerating NHS innovation (Thursday 11th June)
While the recent threshold changes are a boost in particular for pharmaceutical companies, this talk on diagnostics reminds me of the unique challenges that remain for health tech companies. This feels personally relevant after some recent work we did with a diagnostics company struggling to access and demonstrate value for multiple, complex parts of the NHS, which is where our expertise comes in handy.
Care closer to home: How pharmacies are bringing health services to the community (Thursday 11th June)
Pharmacies are becoming increasingly important within the NHS, with a growing burden both on pharmacists and companies working out how to navigate this change. For example, we recently worked with a medtech company struggling to work out how pharmacies fitted into their access picture, and what this really meant. With the increasing focus on neighbourhood health, pharmacies could become a greater part of the access picture for many.
The Climate Adaptation Framework: A how-to guide on building resilience in the NHS (Wednesday 10th June)
Both decarbonisation and mitigation are becoming increasingly important to the NHS. We are already seeing the impacts of the former – the NHS in both England and Scotland achieved carbon footprint reductions,1,2 and our clients are now finding the NHS (and NICE) increasingly value sustainability markers as they take aim at Scope 3 emissions.
However, mitigation is looking increasingly important for the NHS. I write this a scant few hours after the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published their report recommending cooling measures in all hospitals and care homes, and noted that previous heat waves impacted healthcare provision.3 Added to this, the CCC predicts (unsurprisingly) major health impacts resulting from climate change. It’s hard to say what the full impact of this will look like for pharmaceutical and medtech companies, but if they haven’t already, they’re likely to see it on their radar very soon.
Lots of changes underway in the NHS. Want to talk to Ben and Hannah about them at NHS Confed? Email us at evidence@petauri.com.
References:
- NHS England. Five years of a greener NHS: progress and forward look. 2025. Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/five-years-greener-nhs-progress-forward-look/. Accessed on: 20.05.2026.
- Scottish Government. Annual NHS Scotland Climate Emergency & Sustainability Report 2024. 2024. Available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-nhs-scotland-climate-emergency-sustainability-report-2024/. Accessed on: 20.05.2026.
- Climate Change Committee. A Well-Adapted UK. 2026. Available from: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/a-well-adapted-uk/. Accessed on: 20.05.2026.
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