For the better part of a year, the story of AI physiotherapy in the NHS has been told almost entirely in the language of momentum. A Cambridge start-up, Flok Health, secured Class IIa medical device approval under EU regulations in October 2025, becoming the first AI system in Europe cleared to deliver a full care pathway, including diagnostic decisions, without a human clinician supervising each case. The clearance initially covered back pain and sciatica. In August 2026 it

2027 arrives with three structural forces converging at once. The EU AI Act's high-risk obligations begin to bite in earnest, with enforcement for standalone high-risk AI systems landing in December 2027. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) reaches its first major milestone in March 2027, when the key implementing acts are published and the secondary-use framework starts taking concrete shape. A wall of private capital, private equity dry powder, strategics flush from the G