28 August 2025
The NHS is facing a familiar paradox: the demand curve is climbing, but the ability to meet it within existing models is not. Many of the most stubborn challenges in the health system, from avoidable hospital admissions to delays in care for long-term conditions, persist not because they are impossible to solve, but because we have been looking in the wrong place for the solutions.
The real leverage point? Neighbourhood health.
And here’s the key: pharmaceutical companies are uniquely positioned to help build it.
The shift from system-level strategy to street-level impact
For decades, NHS transformation has focused on system-wide reorganisation, big-ticket hospital investments, and national policy shifts. These are essential, but they rarely touch the micro-moments where prevention actually happens.
Neighbourhood health: care delivered closer to where people live, by teams who know their communities – is where those micro-moments occur:
- A pharmacist spotting early signs of poor inhaler adherence.
- A practice nurse acting on subtle changes in blood glucose patterns.
- A mental health link worker checking in before anxiety spirals into crisis.
The problem is that these opportunities often go unseized because local capacity is thin, data is patchy, and coordination is inconsistent.
Why pharma should care
For pharmaceutical companies, this is more than a CSR talking point. It’s a chance to:
- Demonstrate above-brand value by shaping care environments where your therapies achieve optimal impact.
- Open new commercial pathways by working with the NHS at Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Primary Care Network (PCN) levels to support prevention, earlier intervention, and adherence.
- Strengthen long-term relationships with NHS leaders by being seen as a solutions partner, not just a supplier.
Neighbourhood health is not just about shifting services out of hospitals; it’s about creating conditions where patients start the right treatment sooner, stay on it longer, and have better outcomes. That’s directly aligned with both NHS priorities and pharmaceutical objectives.
How Pharma can partner in building neighbourhood health
- Support local data intelligence
Fund or co-develop neighbourhood-level disease prevalence mapping, adherence tracking, and patient pathway analytics to target interventions precisely where they’re needed. - Invest in clinical capacity for priority pathways
Partner with PCNs to fund specialist clinics, nurse training, or shared care models for chronic conditions like diabetes, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease. - Enable integrated care pilots
Work with ICBs to trial new models of multidisciplinary care that combine NHS teams, community services, and voluntary sector partners – with embedded evaluation. - Bring expertise and education
Sponsor mentoring, coaching, and best-practice workshops for local NHS teams, ensuring new clinical pathways are embedded and sustainable.
Breaking the “intractable” NHS challenges
Neighbourhood health investment, supported by pharma, can chip away at the NHS’s toughest problems:
- Avoidable admissions: local monitoring and intervention to stop deterioration before hospital care is needed.
- Delayed discharges: community capacity ready to take patients home sooner.
- Care fragmentation: integrated local teams delivering continuity across mental, physical, and social health needs.
When pharma plays a role in enabling these shifts, it also accelerates uptake of optimal treatment regimens – a win for both system and patient.
The patient-level benefits
Ultimately, this is about outcomes that patients can feel:
- Closer, faster care without the delays of secondary referrals.
- Familiar clinicians who understand the person, not just the disease.
- Confidence and trust in a joined-up system.
Neighbourhood health delivers this, but only if the resources and structures are there to make it happen – and that’s where pharma can step in as an essential ally.
Time to act
The NHS’s pivot towards primary and community care is accelerating. If pharma companies wait until neighbourhood health is fully funded and operational, they will have missed the moment to shape it.
By investing now, not just in medicines but in the care ecosystems that make medicines work better, the pharmaceutical industry can help the NHS turn neighbourhood health from an under-resourced ideal into a practical reality.
This is not philanthropy. It’s partnership.
And it’s one of the most promising opportunities to deliver better outcomes for patients, sustainability for the NHS, and commercial value for pharma – all at the same time.