Pressure is growing on the NHS, with outdated buildings, a mounting repair backlog, and an overstretched workforce. Hospitals face broken lifts, failing heating systems and outdated technology with a record £13.8 billion maintenance backlog. Britain’s healthcare system is rapidly approaching breaking point. Yet, policymakers remain stuck in debates about potential funding solutions, as Amanda Pritchard, the outgoing NHS England chief, has urged ministers to reconsider private investment in healthcare infrastructure. 

This poses the question of how we can secure the NHS’s future without repeating the expensive mistakes of the past.

One innovative solution is National Health Bonds (NHBs)—a financing model that is designed to attract large-scale private investment while keeping the NHS in public hands. Instead of conventional government borrowing or the discredited private finance initiatives (PFIs), NHBs would allow corporations, pension funds and individual investors to directly finance NHS infrastructure. Crucially, NHBs would provide corporate tax breaks for firms that invest and steady returns to individual investors through interest payments on the bonds issued, while ensuring that the public retains complete control of the NHS.