Sulis Hospital to reinvest £1m back into the local NHS as it reaches five-year anniversary
Pioneering UK-first healthcare model also takes 2,600 patients a year off NHS waiting list.
Sulis Hospital will reinvest an estimated £1m back into the local NHS in its fifth year - marking the largest total to date. Sulis Hospital is the first independent hospital to be wholly owned and operated by the NHS, with all its profits reinvested back into NHS services. A £1m investment in the NHS could pay for 25 new nurses a year or 3,000 MRI scans.
Launching in June 2021, Sulis Hospital is owned by the Royal United Hospitals (RUH) Bath NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital was established to increase and reduce elective waiting times, alongside generating income for the NHS.
The partnership between Sulis Hospital and the Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's most progressive examples of a genuinely integrated NHS-independent sector healthcare model.
Sulis Hospital has helped to significantly increase capacity in the region. In the last 12 months alone:
- It has supported over 2,686 NHS patients from across the region who were on waiting lists, and taken 2,386 from the RUH's waiting list.
- Through eRS (electronic referrals whereby NHS patients can choose a specialist hospital for treatment) 8,877 patients were referred to Sulis Hospital through NHS Choice.
- 37,265 appointments have been completed in its Community Diagnostic Centre which was opened in April 2023.
- A total of 109,970 patients have come through Sulis's doors, including NHS and private patients.
In September 2025, a new Sulis Orthopaedic Centre (SOC) for Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire opened at Sulis Hospital. So far over 1,455 orthopaedic patients have been treated there.
Simon Milner, Hospital Director, comments: "The Sulis model demonstrates how integrated public-private healthcare partnerships can deliver additional NHS capacity, financial sustainability and system-wide collaboration, creating a blueprint for future healthcare.
For every patient that comes to Sulis, that's a patient not on the Trust's waiting list and for every self-pay or insured patients that comes to Sulis, they make way for those you cannot pay. This not only reduces the size of the NHS waiting list but actively contributes towards NHS profits.
Five years since launch we couldn't be prouder of what we've achieved. Sulis Hospital is making a meaningful difference to the NHS. And this is just the start as we look to a brighter future."
To mark the fifth anniversary, the team have contributed by fundraising for the RUHX's PET-CT scanner campaign by donating £1 for every specialty coffee served in June, raising a total of £1,500 towards the first milestone.
Sulis is the first independent hospital to achieve accreditation as an elective surgical hub through NHS England's Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) scheme. The award-winning Hospital has a CQC rating or 'Outstanding' for care and 'Good' overall.
And the hospital has become the only independent UK hospital to currently hold accreditation under the prestigious Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) scheme.
Sulis is an independent hospital offering a broad range of surgical and diagnostic services in a modern, relaxed environment, delivered by specialist teams dedicated to outstanding patient outcomes and experience. As a recognised a Centre of Excellence for robotic surgery, expert consultant surgeons utilise cutting-edge robotic systems to provide patients with highly precise, effective surgeries.
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