10 Year Health Plan empowers NICE to get patients better care, faster

I am delighted to welcome the publication of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan today which marks a major moment for the healthcare system and is a clear endorsement of NICE’s role in delivering faster, and fairer access to the best innovations.

The plan gives NICE the power to get medicines to patients faster, reduces the postcode lottery for high impact healthtech, and maximises the value for money of existing innovations used in the NHS.

After years of unprecedented pressure on the health service, the plan charts a clear path from reactive care to prevention, from hospital to community, and from underused innovation to value-driven adoption.

At NICE, we’re ready to deliver - with a broader remit, clearer funding routes, and greater alignment with partners across the system. I’m particularly encouraged by how the plan strengthens NICE’s role in helping patients access the best care faster, while ensuring value for the taxpayer.

In particular, we welcome these three key areas:

1. Reducing the postcode lottery for high impact healthtech

We welcome the plan’s commitment to ensure that high-impact healthtech that meets the NHS’s most urgent needs, will be reimbursed and made available across the NHS - just like medicines.

This will give patients fairer access to the best digital tools, diagnostics and medical devices, strengthen NHS decision-making and provide a more coordinated path to the NHS for developers. The initial focus will be on technologies that meet the NHS's most pressing needs, such as digital mental health therapies for those on long waiting lists. We expect the changes will be in place by April 2026.

2. Faster patient access to medicines

We will work more closely with the MHRA to speed up evaluations and ensure patients get safe, effective treatments sooner. Through new enhanced collaboration we will streamline and simplify the approval journey through joint scientific advice and closely aligned timelines between teams across both organisations. This will help increase coordination and reduce duplication, ensuring MHRA and NICE decisions happen as close together as possible.

3. Maximising the value of treatments already available

The plan strengthens NICE’s role in driving better value by continually re-evaluating clinical pathways.

This will mean:

• Expanded access to cost-effective innovations through new recommendations to extend access to effective treatments beyond their initial indications.

• Clearer decision pathways for innovations by providing advice for clinicians on which treatments to try first when there are many choices for the same condition.  

• Phasing out less effective innovations through making financial headroom for tomorrow’s breakthroughs by helping today’s NHS to identify innovations that no longer represent good value or best care.

The new evaluation process will also support plans for a ‘single national formulary’ that will replace local lists for medicines. This will help address postcode lotteries and ensure all patients benefit from the most effective interventions, regardless of where they live.

Turning ambition into action

The 10-Year Health Plan marks a significant step forward in building an NHS that is faster, fairer and fit for the future.

At NICE, we’re ready to deliver - using our expanded remit to accelerate access, reduce variation, and make smarter use of innovation across the system.

We look forward to working with our partners to turn this shared ambition into meaningful, lasting change.