• Narayana Health acquisition of Practice Plus Group is a good opportunity to create a mutually beneficial association with NHS, UK government and Patients.

In May 2025 I wrote, Why UK's National Health Service needs HELP and what India can do that gave a bird’s eye view of how the National Health Service works in the United Kingdom and later in the year India’s Narayana Health acquired UK’s Practice Plus Group, not that I had any role in the acquisition.

Leading Indian private hospital network Narayana Health (earlier known as Narayana Hrudayalaya) needs no introduction. Offering services ranging from hospitals and clinics to pharmacies, labs and insurance, the network provides an all-inclusive healthcare experience in specialities ranging from cardiology and cardiac surgery to urology and vascular surgery. Founded by eminent cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty in the year 2000, Narayana Health has always aspired to make healthcare affordable to all strata of society.

“Narayana Health operates a network of primary, secondary and tertiary care facilities in India and the Caribbean. It employs a team of 18,822 staff, including 3,868 doctors and specialists, and runs several centres of excellence in different medical fields.” Source

The Practice Plus Group, according to the website hospitalmanagement.net, has 12 hospitals and surgical centres across the UK. There are centres at Bristol, Plymouth, Rochdale, and Portsmouth to name a few. Hip and knee surgeries, hand and wrist surgeries, eye treatments, spinal and oral surgeries are some of the procedures on offer.

By gaining the Practice Plus Group, Narayana Health has gained access to not only UK’s private health sector but also to National Health Service (NHS) patients. NHS treatment is generally free to people certified as residing in the UK. 
According to an article published in candesic.com on 3 November 2025, “The deal, structured as a 100% acquisition of PPG Hospitals Limited (excluding non-core divisions), provides immediate access to multi-year NHS contracts serving 80,000 annual surgeries and generating £250 million revenue (FY25) with £20 million adjusted EBITDA.”

As NHS waiting lists go up, private health insurance is increasingly seen as a way out.

According to a report published by the BBC on 20/1/2026, around 25 per cent of hospitals in England have seen waiting times go up since the government published its plan to deal with the build-up a year ago. There is an 18-week waiting target for NHS treatments such as knee operations. However, out of nearly 130 services examined, it was found that more than 30 hospital trusts have reversed in the wrong direction.

The hospitals under pressure have faced staff shortages and IT problems.

Matters got more complicated due to junior doctors’ strikes in recent years over pay and working conditions. Patients have had surgeries cancelled, referrals delayed or cancelled and even referrals refused due to a lack of capacity.

More and more people are spending their own money to fund their treatment. However, not everyone can afford private treatment.

To clear their backlog, the NHS currently pays private providers such as the Practice Plus Group to offer treatments.

According to The Guardian, in an article published on Friday 25 October 2024 and authored by Julia Kollewe, the NHS spent £2.1 billion in private hospitals in 2023, accounting for nearly a third of their revenues. Of 1.3 million procedures carried out by private hospitals and clinics in 2023, nearly 445,000 were funded by the health service, as per the same article.

Narayana Health’s acquisition of the Practice Plus Group will further the goal of the government using the private sector to slash NHS backlog.

As per a press release on the gov.uk website dated 6 January 2025, an agreement was made with the private sector to tackle long hospital waiting times. Specialist areas were to be targeted, including women waiting for gynaecological and orthopaedic procedures. The private healthcare sector, as per the website, estimated that they had capacity to provide one million more appointments a year for NHS patients.

How will it work for patients at private hospitals like Practice Plus

It will take years to clear the backlog. But at Practice Plus, any NHS patient is welcome.

The Practice Plus website says NHS patients can be treated in any of their hospitals regardless of location as long as it’s safe for their clinical team to treat them. If NHS patients require treatment, they may be offered a choice of hospitals by their GP, and this can include private hospitals. Patients can ask to be referred to a hospital different from the one chosen for them if they have to wait more than 18 weeks for non-urgent treatment. 

If private hospitals are contracted by the NHS, there will be no cost to the patient. Patients only pay for personal items or services such as newspapers and phone calls. However, NHS and private care cannot be mixed for a single kind of treatment.

 Practice Plus Group can give patients an option. Get treated in UK or fly to Narayana Health facility in India and be treated at lower cost plus a holiday. To the extent the India option flies, it would reduce cost of operating NHS for the UK government. 
Emphasising on making private care more cost effective, Dr Shetty has said (as per www.narayanahealth.org), “Like Narayana Health, Practice Plus Group recognised that majority of patients were struggling to access healthcare as only a minority could access costly private healthcare. We have been working to meet the demands of those in between, and to offer a choice of more accessible private healthcare…. We are a perfect fit, and I am looking forward to welcoming Practice Plus Group to Narayana Health and helping many more patients get the help they need.”

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