The NHS, the UK’s National Health Service, exists to make free healthcare available to everyone in the country. According to The King’s Fund, the NHS services around 600,000 patients every year and employs over 1.5 million people.
With this not only comes a huge amount of responsibility, but also a lot of admin.
It’s no surprise then, that startups are stepping in to help.
How Are Startups Helping The NHS?
As the NHS battles with staff shortages, outdated systems and a huge client base, startups are helping in a number of ways, including:
Improving admin: Creating better systems for logging medical histories so doctors and patients have better visibility over medical needs.
Boosing at-home care: Startups are helping to lighten the load in GP waiting rooms by giving patients more options for care at home. Through monitoring and telemedicine, patients can now access support without having to step foot in a crowded waiting room.
Recruitment: One of the biggest issues that the NHS faces is staffing shortages. Startups are helping to match doctors with empty shifts helping to plug any recruitment gaps quickly.
How Does The NHS Work With Startups?
The NHS doesn’t just use startups to better its operations, it actively invests in them.
Programmes like The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) exist to support new innovations that could benefit patients and staff. The programme currently supports 37 ventures and over 2,000 NHS sites use innovations that have emerged from the programme.
The NHS also supports their Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, that empowers healthcare workers to develop their own startup ideas from within the system.
For startups that already exist, the NHS Market Access Accelerator is a 6-month programme that helps them better understand how to work with the NHS.
So, who are the startups powering the UK’s National Healthcare System? Let’s take a look…
QuestPrehab
Back in November 2024, QuestPrehab announced a partnership with the NHS. The company is an AI prehabilitation service that prepares patients for major surgery or treatment using fitness plans, mindfulness and nutritional guidance.
Through this, patients can recover faster and experience a better quality of life. With the NHS, QuestPrehab has already been proven to help patients recover more quickly, reduce the length of hospital stays and lower waiting lists.
Accurx
Accurx is a platform that makes it easier for healthcare professionals and patients to communicate online. Their software offers an alternative to the swathes of letters, phone numbers and pagers that the NHS currently relies on. Instead, it gives healthcare providers multiple options for communicating with patients, modernising the way care is communicated.
To date, over 350,000 people use accurx in the NHS, helping to cut down waiting lists and support better care within the system.
Real World Health
Real World Health closed a 1.37 million funding round to help the NHS use its data more efficiently and improve patient care.
As the NHS is home to vast amounts of patient data with no way to process it, Real World Health uses software to understand and suggest how to improve care through the NHS.
By combining current data with machine learning, Real World Health is helping the NHS make more informed decisions around how to improve productivity and drive better patient care.
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Healsgood
Healsgood is on a mission to help the NHS tackle staffing gaps and reduce long waiting lists.
The company uses AI to connect healthcare centres that are looking for staff with recruitment agencies and healthcare providers wanting to take on extra shifts.
Their AI, Flexzo, helps to connect doctors with flexible shifts and locum positions, allowing them more easily sign up and find jobs to fill.
TORTUS
TORTUS is a startup that is setting out to reduce the admin burden on doctors in the NHS. Using AI, TORTUS is able to automatically draft clinic notes and letters, saving doctors time.
Using voice recognition, the AI listens in to patient visits and uses the data to draft up patient notes and records. This not only reduces the amount of admin doctors have to take on, but frees up their time to visit more patients, thereby reducing waiting lists.
EQL
EQL is a digital physiotherapy platform that helps patients get started on their physiotherapy journey straight away.
By giving patients remote courses, EQL helps to lower the need for in-person appointments and allows physios to cut down waiting lists by spending more time with those that have more complex needs.
Cera Care
Cera Care is a home healthcare company that uses telemedicine to give people the care they need, without needing to visit GPs or hospitals.
Through adopting Cera Care, medical providers have seen a 70% reduction in hospitalisations, meaning the hospital time is reserved for those that need it most. The app uses AI and machine learning to provide healthcare at home, reducing strains on hospitals.
