Ian Gordon examines the reporting, remuneration and contract-management risks created by the April 2026 NHS unscheduled care reforms.
The intention behind the 2026 unscheduled-care reform is sound: create reliable urgent access and reduce historic inequality caused by different UDA values. The difficulty is that the reporting and payment architecture can recreate inequality, obscure associate remuneration, distort activity actuals and leave providers without a clearly stated residual UDA target. A system this important should not require contractors or performers to reverse-engineer it.
