Private healthcare is becoming harder for pharma and health companies to ignore.

Three drivers are pushing it up the market access agenda: long NHS waiting times, an ageing population, and growing consumer willingness to pay for faster and more convenient access, or for treatments and technologies (advanced imaging), not yet available through the NHS.

The context is clear. In March 2026, the NHS hospital waiting list in England was around 7.1 million, and the 18-week treatment target has not been met since 2016. England’s population is also ageing rapidly, with the number of people aged 65+ projected to increase by 3.3 million over the next 20 years.

Private healthcare is becoming more normalised too. Research indicates that nearly half of people using private healthcare cited inability to access an NHS appointment quickly enough as the key reason. Meanwhile, the Care Quality Commission reported that private controlled drug prescribing across independent primary care services increased by 38% in 2024, following a 73% increase the previous year.

For pharma, this creates a different kind of commercial question.

When a therapy, diagnostic or technology is not reimbursed, not yet reimbursed, or only available to a restricted NHS population, the opportunity may still exist. But it needs to be properly understood.

Those with an interest in this area should be asking:

• What is the size of the pre-reimbursement or out-of-pocket opportunity?
• What price-volume trade-off is realistic?
• What market share could be achieved privately?
• Which access model would work best?
• What barriers could limit uptake?
• What value messages would support adoption?

Impact Health has explored these questions across orthopaedics, ophthalmology, dermatology, diagnostics and imaging, and neurology. Our work has included research with patients/ care givers, insurers, pharmacies, private clinics, consultants and KOLs to understand willingness to pay, likely uptake, service models, barriers and value messages.

The rapid growth of weight-loss injections shows how quickly private access models can scale when patient demand, visible benefit, digital provision and pharmacy delivery come together. But it also shows that success depends on more than demand alone. Governance, eligibility, monitoring, affordability and trust all matter.

Private healthcare is not simply a “self-pay” option. It is an access strategy.

For pharma and health companies, the opportunity is to understand the private market early, quantify its value, identify the right stakeholders and design practical routes to uptake.

In a dynamic and changing access landscape, Impact Health helps companies understand the potential opportunity and how private markets can work in practice.

To learn more about Impact Health’s private healthcare experience, please get in touch.

jamie.margerison@impacthealthmr.com