Shaping the Future of Urgent Care – Together

Reflections from the 2025 UHUK CEO Leadership Workshop

Earlier this month, CEOs and senior leaders from across Urgent Health UK (UHUK) gathered in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, home of member organisation Dalriada Urgent Care, for our annual CEO Workshop. This event provided valuable time not only to network, but to pause, reflect, and plan ahead - away from the day-to-day pressures of service delivery.

Over two packed days, we focused on what truly matters: strengthening collaboration across our network, driving innovation in urgent care, and shaping a future health system that works better for patients, partners and communities.

Expertly facilitated by Simon Morioka, Joint CEO of PPL, the workshop explored the opportunities ahead as the NHS looks towards a new Neighbourhood Health Operating Model and the challenges set out in the NHS 10-Year Plan. Simon’s insights helped frame how UHUK members can lead the way in neighbourhood-based care - integrating services around patients’ needs and supporting system-wide change.

The workshop also featured inspiring contributions from our associate partners, who engaged as active participants in our conversations. Rather than simply presenting solutions, they listened carefully to the real-world challenges facing our members:

Liz Cross and Liz Allen from The Connectives shared progress on the shared Quality Assurance Framework we are developing together, which will demonstrate the collective impact of UHUK’s social enterprise members on health outcomes.
Adam Pike of Zone Nation sparked conversations around the role of tech partnerships in integrated urgent care, drawing on his own journey from care provider to technology innovator.
Tim Davison from Mastercall Healthcare and Paul Wright from OneAdvanced shared a practical model to join up existing services - combining digital triage, clinical assessment, and urgent care pathways to reduce A&E demand.

These rich and honest conversations, combined with focused strategy sessions, allowed us to test and refine UHUK’s three-year strategy for 2025–2028 and strengthen our shared commitment to drive system change.

The workshop wasn’t only about strategic planning. It was also about leadership learning, community, and shared purpose. A visit to the 18th-century Moravian settlement of Gracehill offered a powerful reminder of what healthy communities can look like - thoughtfully designed, rooted in shared values, and supporting the well-being of all. The parallels with our work in neighbourhood health were striking and timely. Thanks to David Johnston,
Dalriada Clinical Director for organising the visit and sharing his knowledge.

Above all, this year’s workshop reinforced the collective strength of the UHUK membership: a unique network of social enterprises working together to improve urgent and integrated care across the UK. As the new NHS 10-Year Plan is published, we are ready to play our part -bringing innovation, collaboration and practical solutions to the challenges ahead.

Our sincere thanks to Dalriada Urgent Care for their warm hospitality, to all our speakers and to our associate partners Hallam Medical, OneAdvanced and PC24/Blinx, and to every leader who contributed so openly and generously.