Skip to main content
wheredoesthemoneygo.to
All areas

Area 1 of 9

Health & Care

The NHS buys medicines, medical devices, clinical staffing, diagnostics, estates and independent-sector capacity from thousands of suppliers.

Supplier spend

£92bn

Share of all supplier spend

23%

Top 10 suppliers

£15.3bn

Since 2019

+48%

Contract spend trend

+£30.0bn (48%) since 2019

Data sourcesCabinet Office — Contracts Finder (awarded contracts)data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)Cabinet Office — Find a Tender Service (high-value awards)data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)HM Government — Departmental spend over £25,000data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)Crown Commercial Service — Frameworks and agreements
exact ONS/HMRC/MHCLG/PSS fields

What the money buys

  • Medicines and vaccines

  • Clinical capacity

  • Estates and digital

Bought by NHS England, NHS trusts, DHSC, UKHSA and integrated care boards.

Top 10 suppliers

Data sourcesCabinet Office — Contracts Finder (awarded contracts)data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)Cabinet Office — Find a Tender Service (high-value awards)data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)HM Government — Departmental spend over £25,000data.gov.uk API (api.gov.uk)Crown Commercial Service — Frameworks and agreements
exact ONS/HMRC/MHCLG/PSS fields

  1. #1AstraZeneca

    £3.1bn

    Branded medicines, oncology and respiratory treatments, vaccines

    Cambridge, UK · 3.4% of the area

    • Medicines
    • Vaccines

  2. #2GSK

    £2.6bn

    Vaccines, respiratory and HIV medicines

    London, UK · 2.8% of the area

    • Medicines
    • Vaccines

  3. #3Pfizer UK

    £2.4bn

    Vaccines, oncology and speciality medicines

    Tadworth, UK · 2.6% of the area

    • Medicines

  4. #4Alliance Healthcare / Cencora

    £2.2bn

    Pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution to hospitals and pharmacies

    Chessington, UK · 2.4% of the area

    • Distribution

  5. #5Spire Healthcare

    £1.4bn

    NHS-funded elective surgery, diagnostics and outpatient capacity

    London, UK · 1.5% of the area

    • Independent sector

  6. #6Ramsay Health Care UK

    £1.0bn

    NHS elective surgery, orthopaedics and diagnostics

    Loughton, UK · 1.1% of the area

    • Independent sector

  7. #7Serco

    £0.9bn

    Hospital facilities management, cleaning, catering and portering

    Hook, UK · 1.0% of the area

    • Facilities

  8. #8Oracle Health (Cerner)

    £0.6bn

    Electronic patient record systems and hospital IT

    London / Austin · 0.7% of the area

    • Digital

  9. #9Siemens Healthineers

    £0.6bn

    Imaging scanners, diagnostics equipment and managed service contracts

    Camberley, UK · 0.7% of the area

    • Equipment

  10. #10NHS Professionals / Acacium

    £0.5bn

    Bank and agency clinical staffing

    London, UK · 0.5% of the area

    • Staffing

Medicines alone account for roughly a quarter of all NHS non-pay spend.

Independent-sector providers deliver around 10% of NHS-funded elective care.

Agency and bank staffing remains one of the largest single controllable costs.

Sources