Transforming UK Healthcare through University Hospitals

According to the Health Service Journal (HSJ), the UK is considered one of the best countries in regards to its healthcare system, ranking fourth globally in the Nature Index. However, this isn’t reflected in clinical outcomes and patient benefits - there is a clear gap. One way this gap is measured is through limited access to new medicines. Between 2020 and 2023, only 65% of new EU-approved medicines became readily available in the UK, compared with 90% in Germany and 85% in Italy.

University hospitals play a crucial role in closing this gap. They make up just 20% of NHS trusts but run more than half of all NIHR-funded clinical trials and treat over a third of patients. Their outsized role in research and patient care makes them central to driving and spreading innovation across the UK healthcare system. However, they are overstretched, and the number of clinical academics is falling. To ensure innovation reaches patients faster, these hospitals need urgent and targeted support.

Barriers holding back University Hospitals

The HSJ surveyed senior executives from the University Hospital Association (UHA) to understand the obstacles slowing progress in UK healthcare innovation. Their insights highlighted four key pressures:

• Severely limited workforce capacity, leaving little room to take on additional research or transformation work.
• Fragmented systems and inconsistent data-sharing, which make it difficult to drive cross-organisational or translational innovation.
• High upfront costs required to form effective NHS partnerships, creating barriers for all but the most well-resourced innovators.
• Slow and restrictive regulatory processes, which delay access to new technologies and treatments.

What University Hospitals require

Despite these challenges observed from their survey with the UHA, HSJ have outlined the following three recommendations as to how these barriers can be addressed:

1. Embed innovation into strategy – Make it a core priority, set measurable goals, and give clinicians dedicated time to develop new ideas.
2. Strengthen partnerships – Act as hubs for collaboration with industry, combining expertise, funding, and patient access to accelerate innovation.
3. Incentivise innovation – Reward clinician-innovators, simplify regulatory hurdles, and create safe environments to pilot new solutions.

How we can assist University Hospitals

To help University Hospitals ease some of these pressures, Procurement Services Lifecycle offers a suite of procurement and contract management solutions that streamline operations, ensure compliance, and provide clearer oversight. Our proprietary platform, OPTIMiSe, gives real-time visibility over contracts, suppliers, and performance metrics, helping to reduce administrative burdens and free up staff capacity - allowing hospitals to focus more time and energy on research, trials, and innovation.

To find out more about how we can support University Hospitals, get in touch at lifecycle@csltd.org.uk.