The ‘budget for growth’ represents opportunities in healthcare
A “budget for growth” is how the Chancellor introduced yesterday’s Spring Budget in his official speech and it was clear that, from childcare to pensions, the vast majority of measures announced have been designed principally with that goal in mind.
As the NHS Confederation notes, there will be no increase in NHS capital or revenue budgets and the wait continues for a resolution to the ongoing pay disputes and for the long-delayed NHS workforce plan.
For the healthcare sector, the opportunities unlocked by this budget announcement appear to be based around the ability to support the economy in one of two areas:
Keeping the workforce healthy (and therefore productive)
Driving healthcare innovation (in technology or medication) that delivers growth
Work-related ill-health
Latest figures from Health Safety Executive show that in 2022, 1.8m people experienced work-related ill-health. Of those, 0.9m were related to stress, depression or anxiety and 0.5m were related to musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. These cases led to an estimated 36.8m working days lost last year, costing the economy some £18.8bn in total.
To tackle this, the Chancellor announced a £400m support package to improve MSK and mental health support by expanding access to digital resources and health checks, stating: “We should give people support before they end up leaving their job.” He also announced funding to reduce the number of economically inactive people struggling with long-term conditions such as mental health and MSK.
The Occupational Health market is thought to be worth some $1.7bn in 2023 (£1.4bn) and these latest announcements could drive that upwards. For health insurers, healthcare providers and preventative healthcare products, the value of building authority around an ability to improve the health of the UK workforce just got higher.
Our client, Ascenti, the UK’s leading MSK physiotherapy provider, already knows the value of building an expert voice in this area, with our campaigns on virtual physiotherapy and occupational health having delivered tangible business value for the organisation, including 10 high value contracts.
Innovation pathways for MedTech, diagnostics and drugs
In his speech, the Chancellor announced that he would be accepting all of the digital technology recommendations made by outgoing Chief Scientific Adviser and current National Technology Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, in his recent report, ‘Pro-innovation Regulation of Technologies Review’.
This was a broad report, but it was accompanied yesterday by an official letter from Vallance to the Chancellor, which describes a need to “deliver a progressive UK regulatory offer to unlock innovation in diagnostics, drugs and medical technologies (including devices) and provide a simple regulatory journey for companies to engage with.”
The letter describes how the UK fares badly compared to European counterparts when it comes to making innovative medicines available to patients. The Chancellor duly announced that, from 2024, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will introduce swift new approvals systems, speeding up access to treatments that have already been approved by international partners and accelerating the implementation of innovative technologies such as cancer vaccines and AI therapeutics for mental health. Our friends at the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) have called for urgent clarification that technology approval pathways will apply to UK-based companies as well as those in Europe, Japan and the US, but welcomed the overall direction of travel, while GSK has said that the move will “improve the attractiveness of the UK for investment in life sciences research.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also being prioritised, after Sir Patrick Vallance’s report suggested there is a “12-to-24-month window to make the UK one of the top places in the world to build foundational AI companies.” A £900m investment into an ultra-powerful ‘exascale’ computer to provide the power needed for the UK AI industry to become a world leader was unveiled yesterday, as well as an ‘AI sandbox’ to trial new faster approaches to getting cutting-edge products to market.
There will also be £310m spent on digital health innovations for mental health, MSK and cardiovascular conditions to digitise the NHS Health Check. This will enable faster identification of cardiovascular conditions and the digitisation of mental health services in England, including the NHS Talking Therapies programme.
There is clearly a huge opportunity for innovative AI or technology-driven health organisations that can demonstrate that they deliver tangible health outcomes safely. This is something we recently helped our client, Limbic, to communicate, when we announced they were the first AI mental health e-triage chatbot in the world to achieve UKCA accreditation, demonstrating that it is safe and effective. The innovative software is now used by around 25% of NHS Talking Therapies.
Conclusion
One thing is clear; this budget represents an opportunity for growth for those healthcare and life sciences organisations that have the capability and vision to support the Chancellor’s mission.
Organisations that invest in building their expert status, while communicating the value they deliver for their audiences, are always more likely to succeed. Right now, in these competitive times, when budgets are tight and expectations are high, building trust and recognition of expertise while clearly articulating and quantifying the health value delivered to customers and/or patients, is even more important.
Leigh Greenwood is the Managing Director of Evergreen PR. To find out how Evergreen can help you to build your organisation’s Health Authority to drive business outcomes, contact us today.