• What are the biggest opportunities and risks facing independent providers over the next three to five years?

• How should providers balance NHS partnership work with growth in insured and self-pay services?

• Where should investment be prioritised across hospitals, digital infrastructure, workforce and new models of care?

• What will distinguish successful independent healthcare providers by 2030?

Danielle Henry, Director of Policy, Independent Healthcare Providers Network

This panel will examine how primary care, diagnostic providers, and independent hospitals can work more effectively alongside the NHS to improve patient access, strengthen pathways, and deliver sustainable services amidst growing demand. The conversation will bring together senior leaders from across the healthcare landscape to look at better connecting policy, commissioning, diagnostics, and frontline clinical services. Additionally, the speakers will explore what effective collaboration looks like in practice, identifying where capacity can be expanded to relieve system pressures. Finally, the panel will focus on how providers can ensure this cross-sector growth directly translates into better patient outcomes and a more responsive healthcare system overall.

• Making outcomes and performance information more meaningful and accessible to patients

• Improving the completeness and consistency of data across independent healthcare

• Using benchmarking and clinical outcomes to identify opportunities for quality improvement

• Building trust through transparent reporting, patient feedback and evidence of care quality

• Embedding a culture where patient safety is everyone's responsibility

• Using clinical performance data, audit and patient feedback to drive continuous improvement

• Supporting clinical teams to identify risks, learn from incidents and share best practice

• Maintaining robust governance and regulatory assurance while expanding services

• Demonstrating quality and value to patients, commissioners and referring clinicians

• Developing a clear strategy for private patient services within a large NHS teaching trust

• Identifying opportunities for growth through service development, patient demand and regional market needs

• Building effective relationships with clinicians, operational teams and external partners

• Balancing the requirements of private patient services with NHS responsibilities, capacity and clinical governance

• Developing the operational processes and infrastructure needed to support sustainable growth

• Measuring success through service performance, patient experience and the contribution private healthcare makes to the organisation

• Addressing the underlying causes of workforce turnover and disengagement

• Creating supportive cultures that encourage retention, development and progression

• Strengthening collaboration between health and social care to improve continuity of care

• Explore key medico-legal risks facing clinicians and independent healthcare providers, drawing on lessons from cases and claims
• Identify practical strategies for reducing clinical risk, improving documentation and communication, and strengthening informed consent
• Understand how learning from medico-legal cases can inform clinical governance, support patient safety and help prevent future incidents

Graham Cookson, Chief Executive, Office of Health Economics

Richard Aris, Director of Strategic Partnerships and External Affairs, Healthcode

A cross-sector debate examining how the economics of healthcare shape provider growth, investment decisions, patient access and the relationship between NHS-funded and privately funded care.