What 18 Week Support does

18 Week Support is a UK-based, privately held clinical insourcing provider founded in 2014-2015 and headquartered in London. The company deploys teams of doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, and allied health professionals into existing NHS facilities on weekends and weekdays to deliver additional clinical capacity for NHS Trusts across England, Wales, and Scotland. Services span 15 specialties including dermatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, urology, orthopaedics, endoscopy, neurology, general surgery, and radiology, addressing Referral to Treatment, diagnostic, and cancer pathway backlogs. The company reports partnerships with 80+ NHS Trusts, 123,678 patients seen in the last year, and a 99.9% patient satisfaction rate, supported by ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications and a clinically-led governance model.

The business model is professional services revenue generated through NHS tariff-sharing arrangements, where 18 Week Support delivers services below NHS tariff and retains the margin between delivery cost and tariff. Procurement is conducted primarily via NHS framework agreements in England, Wales, and Scotland, which enable direct award contracts without formal tendering, paired with consultative direct sales targeting Trust Directors of Operations, Service Managers, and General Managers. Distribution and delivery are exclusively on NHS premises; there are no channel partners or third-party resellers. The company has no disclosed proprietary technology platform, AI/ML capability, or software product; its competitive position rests on clinical workforce mobilisation, tariff economics, and embedded Trust relationships.

In April 2026 the company merged with Sussex Community Dermatology Service (SCDS) and Medical Clinics Limited (MCL), extending its dermatology capability from facility insourcing into fully outsourced community clinic pathways and adding private-pay dermatology exposure in the Southeast of England. The company is a member of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) and publishes annual SECR ESG reporting, with FY 24-25 total emissions of 760.72 tCO2e. Ownership is private with no disclosed institutional investors, parent company, or external funding rounds.

Name

18 Week Support

Legal name

18 Week Support

Website

https://18weeksupport.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

18 Week Support is a UK-based NHS insourcing provider that deploys doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals into existing NHS facilities across 15 specialties to reduce waiting lists for 80+ NHS Trusts in England, Wales, and Scotland under tariff-sharing contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

NHS Insourcing Services

NAICS

Offices of Physicians (6211)

SIC

Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)

akta.pro primary industry

Healthcare Clinical & Allied Health Staffing (BPACADAJ)

Keywords

• NHS insourcing services
• Clinical workforce solutions
• Waiting list reduction
• NHS dermatology services
• Healthcare capacity management

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. NHS Insourcing Services: 18 Week Support provides insourcing services to NHS Trusts, deploying clinical teams (doctors, nurses, HCAs) into existing NHS facilities on weekends and weekdays to reduce waiting lists. Revenue is generated through service delivery contracts, with tariff-sharing arrangements with Trusts. The company offers services below NHS tariff, generating revenue from the margin between cost of delivery and NHS tariff rates.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

18 Week Support provides NHS insourcing services, deploying multi-disciplinary clinical teams (consultants, doctors, nurses, and healthcare assistants) into existing NHS facilities on weekends and weekdays to deliver additional clinical capacity. The company reduces waiting lists across RTT, diagnostics, and cancer pathways, and operates across 15 specialties including dermatology, urology, radiology, audiology, cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and general surgery.

Product overview

18 Week Support operates as a single unified NHS insourcing service rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. The company's core offering is clinical workforce insourcing, providing teams of doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals who work within NHS facilities to increase capacity and reduce waiting lists. Through their merger with Sussex Community Dermatology Service (SCDS) and Medical Clinics Limited (MCL), they have expanded their dermatology offering to include both insourcing within NHS facilities and fully outsourced pathways including community clinics. Services span 15 clinical specialties including dermatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, urology, orthopaedics, and others.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NHS Insourcing Services Clinical workforce insourcing services in which 18 Week Support's teams of consultants, doctors, nurses, and healthcare assistants work within existing NHS facilities to provide additional capacity, reduce waiting lists, and give patients faster access to care across RTT, diagnostics, and cancer pathways. Covers 15 specialties including dermatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, urology, orthopaedics, endoscopy, radiology, audiology, neurology, and general surgery.
• Community Dermatology Services (SCDS / MCL) Consultant-led dermatology services delivered in community settings, including outpatient dermatology, dermatology surgery, and wound clinics, provided by teams of Consultant Dermatologists, GPs with Extended Roles, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Nurse Prescribers. Available to NHS Trusts and private patients following the 2026 merger with SCDS and MCL.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99.9% patient satisfaction rate
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Sussex Community Dermatology Service (SCDS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 202618 Week Support merged with Sussex Community Dermatology Service (SCDS), which delivers one of the UK's largest independent NHS dermatology services, providing consultant-led care in community settings. The partnership expands 18 Week Support's dermatology insourcing capabilities to include both NHS facility insourcing and fully outsourced community clinic pathways.
• Medical Clinics Limited (MCL)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 202618 Week Support merged with Medical Clinics Limited (MCL), a specialist provider of dermatology services to NHS and private patients across the Southeast of England. MCL's specialist dermatology capabilities complement 18WS's NHS insourcing model.
• Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner18 Week Support is a member of IHPN, the membership network for independent healthcare providers in the UK. IHPN brings all types of independent providers together to deliver great care to patients and make a positive contribution to UK healthcare, engaging with national system regulators including CQC, GMC, and NHS England.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Practice Plus Group: Independent sector provider of NHS and private healthcare including insourcing, diagnostics, and outpatient services. Comparable in serving NHS Trusts with capacity-additive clinical services across multiple specialties.
• Totally plc: UK-listed provider of NHS insourcing, urgent care, and community health services. Directly comparable to 18 Week Support in deploying clinical teams to NHS facilities to reduce waiting lists and diagnostics backlogs under similar tariff-sharing models.
• Medinet (Clinicare Health): UK-based NHS insourcing specialist providing multi-specialty clinical teams into NHS Trusts on weekends and evenings. Closely comparable service model, customer base, and revenue mechanism to 18 Week Support.
• DMC Healthcare: Provider of NHS community dermatology, ophthalmology, and endoscopy services. Highly comparable post the SCDS/MCL merger, as 18 Week Support now operates adjacent community-clinic dermatology pathways.
• MedicsPro: UK healthcare clinical staffing agency supplying doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals to NHS Trusts. Comparable workforce-placement model and NHS customer base, though more agency-driven than insourcing-led.

Broad incumbents

• Circle Health Group: UK private hospital group with significant NHS elective care contracts and insourcing relationships. Operates more broadly across inpatient and surgical care but competes for NHS waiting-list reduction contracts.
• Spire Healthcare: Large UK private hospital operator with extensive NHS partnership contracts. Adjacent in providing NHS capacity to reduce waiting lists, though primarily through owned hospital infrastructure rather than insourcing.
• HCA Healthcare UK: UK arm of large US private hospital group with NHS contracts and complex care capabilities. Comparable in NHS private-sector delivery but operates owned-hospital infrastructure at substantially greater scale.

Others

• NHS Professionals: NHS-owned flexible staff bank supplying temporary clinical workforce to NHS Trusts. Operates in adjacent workforce capacity space and represents a potential in-house alternative to insourcing providers like 18 Week Support.

Emerging players

• Connect Health: UK independent provider of NHS community musculoskeletal, mental health, and dermatology services. Comparable NHS commissioning model and multi-specialty community delivery, though focused on MSK pathways.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/18weeksupport
• Facebookfacebook.com/18weeksupport
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/18-week-support

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 18 Week Support