The UK National Health Service (NHS) is facing an unprecedented backlog in care across all units in primary and secondary care. As of September 2025, 6.2 million individuals were stuck on the waiting list expecting treatments, with 2.8 million of those waiting over 18 weeks. This is a serious issue that needs to be tackled to support patients in getting the care they deserve.
One major problem that the NHS currently faces is chronic wound management, which has emerged as a critical pressure point. Conditions such as venous leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers are not only painful and impairing for patients but are also resource-intensive when not treated effectively. These wounds often require months, and in some cases, years of treatment, requiring ongoing clinical attention, increasing the strain on an already overstretched system.
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As the NHS works to keep up with growing patient requirements, there remains recognition that traditional wound care pathways could be better supported to improve healing outcomes for patients. One way in which this can be done is through non-invasive devices that stimulate increased blood flow, enabling accelerated wound healing and lightening the load on the NHS. With medtech of this sort, the NHS can provide treatment to an increased number of patients while speeding up treatment timeframes.
Scale of the wound care backlog
The NHS currently manages around 3.8 million patients annually with chronic wounds, a figure that is growing by 12% every year. This spotlights the pressure point the NHS is currently facing, with chronic wounds often leaving patients housebound for long periods of time and often requiring increased clinic or hospital visits and stays. This results in a patient group that creates a huge financial burden for the NHS. The annual cost for wound management is estimated to be around £8.3bn ($11.1bn) per year and is only likely to rise should healthcare providers not find wound care pathways that can speed up time to recovery.
Chronic wounds often require long-term intensive care, diverting community nursing and GP resources away from other at-risk patient groups, placing a strain on the wider NHS. Non-healing or deteriorating wounds can increase the risk of hospital admission, particularly where complications arise. This can impact bed availability, increasing the burden at both local and national levels. Consequently, the strain on the workforce is worsened.
Over 70% of chronic wound care costs lie in community nursing time. This is the result of high patient caseloads and multiple home visits. The situation is contributing to wider systematic pressure, impacting care pathways that vary between localities. As a result, chronic wound healing timelines and treatment steps become inconsistent from one setting to another.
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By GlobalDataPressure on community nurse time increases the risk of missed early warning signs that a wound is deteriorating, reducing opportunities for timely intervention. This not only impacts patient outcomes but also increases the likelihood of escalation into secondary care where avoidable.
Limitations in current wound care
Due to high workloads, current wound care delivery is often reactive rather than preventive. Particularly, in wounds that are slow to heal – with referral to specialists also not always happening soon enough. Limited early intervention, along with poor patient compliance to standard of care, can lead to wound deterioration, resulting in the need for hospital-based care, which can require resource-intensive treatments that could have been avoided with earlier, more proactive support in the community.
In the home and clinic settings, traditional wound care pathways typically involve a sequence of steps such as wound cleaning, dressing changes, and compression therapy. While these methods are clinically validated and can deliver results, they do not always address the root-cause of worsening wounds, which is poor circulation. These methods also rely heavily upon patients notifying the relevant healthcare provider at the right time, yet sadly, due to location or confidence, many leave it late.
This is where non-invasive wound care technology becomes significant. By increasing blood circulation to accelerate healing, this can enhance recovery both in the home, clinic and hospital settings. Particularly if the technology is easy to use and enables patients to self-manage their care – thereby reducing the demand on already stretched NHS resources while supporting better clinical outcomes for patients.
The role of non-invasive medical devices in wound care
Using a non-invasive medical device that allows patients to manage their own care, or share care with others, is key to better outcomes for chronic wound patients and supporting healthcare providers. The technology can help patients receive treatments that suit the nature and history of their wounds, with specialists freed up to help achieve operational efficiency. In doing so, this helps patients regain their lives and reduces strain on wound care clinics, hospitals and their staff.
A non-invasive wearable neuromuscular electrical stimulator (NMES) can increase blood flow and support the body’s natural healing mechanisms. Applied just below the knee, an NMES device delivers a gentle electrical pulse to a specific nerve, activating the calf and foot muscle pumps. This process increases blood flow and transports oxygenated blood to the wound edge and bed accelerating wound healing, effectively replicating the effects of exercise.
A wearable NMES technology can reduce dependence on wound clinic and hospital-based care, freeing up clinician time for other essential procedures. Their portability allows patients to self-care or share their care with family members and community nurses, minimising the need for frequent home or clinic visits and lowering the risk of avoidable hospital admissions. By improving circulation and oxygen delivery, these technologies support tissue repair and accelerate recovery.
Benefits for patients and the NHS system
When patients and healthcare systems benefit from medical technology, such as an NMES device, the outlook for both improves significantly. The technology can be used without specialist application, helping reduce the chronic wound care burden, optimise specific wound care, and saving NHS costs. In numerous ways, this supports the NHS to achieve its core value: offering more effective recoveries for their patients.
Traditional pathways can struggle to pre-empt wounds worsening, limiting opportunities for early intervention and healing. This can result in prolonged treatment pathways, poor patient compliance, and hospital admissions. Regional variations in care can further complicate outcomes, creating inconsistent treatment responses, increasing the burden on primary and secondary care.
The takeaway
By using modern wound care technologies, including a wearable NMES solution, the NHS and other healthcare providers have an opportunity to revolutionise the way they treat patients, freeing up capacity in primary and secondary care for better patient outcomes.
