Current climate and Challenges
The NHS is at a pivotal moment: public satisfaction has plummeted from around 70 % in 2010 to just over 20 % today, and productivity remains 20–25 % below pre-pandemic levels. Demand continues to surge, driven by an ageing population—approximately 25 % of the UK population lives with long-term conditions that consume nearly two-thirds of NHS spending.
Crucially, diagnostic delays—such as long waits for cardiac markers, NT-proBNP, and other essential tests—are exacerbating pressures on hospitals and primary care POCT offers a solution, enabling rapid, on-the-spot testing that can dramatically reduce delays, reduce unnecessary admissions, and empower real-time clinical decision-making—particularly in urgent care and virtual ward settings.
Timeliness of the event
The NHS 10‑Year Health Plan, published 3 July 2025, sets the direction for radical transformation: shifting from hospital-based to community care, becoming digital-led, and pivoting from sickness to prevention. POCT is a cornerstone of this vision, offering the diagnostic agility needed in neighbourhood health centres, virtual wards, and remote care pathways.
As policymakers and providers move from strategy to implementation, our event comes at the perfect moment—to share best practice, address operational hurdles, and ensure POCT is embedded effectively across emerging care models.
Key Subjects Covered
- Strategic alignment: How POCT integrates with the NHS three-shift agenda—hospital→community, analogue→digital, sickness→prevention.
- Clinical pathways: Deployment in virtual wards, urgent community response, frailty services, heart failure, and acute respiratory settings.
- Operational frameworks: Ensuring regulatory compliance, governance, training, procurement, and quality standards in POCT delivery.
- Technology & evidence: Insights into POCT technologies (e.g., cardiac markers, NT‑proBNP, lab-on-a-chip), digital integration and interoperability.
- Outcomes & evaluation: Evidence from pilot sites showing reduced admissions, faster diagnoses, improved efficiency, and patient satisfaction.
- Scalability & sustainability: Discussing workforce readiness, cost models, and future innovation—AI-enhanced diagnostics, genomics, and predictive analytics.
Why Attend
This event offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the future of NHS diagnostics at the frontline of change. Participants will:
- Gain strategic insights into how POCT supports the NHS 10‑Year Plan’s signature shifts, enhancing community care, prevention, and digital transformation.
- Learn from real-world case studies and evidence demonstrating how POCT in virtual wards, urgent care, and primary settings can slash diagnostic delays, cut hospital admissions, and improve patient flow.
- Get practical guidance on essential success factors—procurement, regulation, governance, staff training, and quality assurance—to overcome implementation barriers.
- Explore the innovation landscape, including lab-on-a-chip, AI-supported diagnostics, and integration with newborn genomics screening, ensuring your organisation is ready for next-gen developments.
- Network with NHS leaders, clinicians, policymakers, and technology providers, fostering collaborative approaches to scale effective POCT models across Integrated Care Systems.
- Equip yourself with tangible takeaways—templates, checklists, strategic frameworks—to embed POCT into your local health ecosystem and drive measurable improvements in patient outcomes and service efficiency.
This event is essential for NHS leaders, clinicians, ICS representatives, diagnostic service providers, and innovators committed to delivering faster, smarter, and more equitable healthcare in line with the NHS’s bold transformation agenda.
