Introduction: Although hospitals are key health service providers, their financial ties to drug companies have been rarely scrutinised. In developing this body of work, we examine industry payments for non-research activities to National Health Service (NHS) trusts – hospital groupings providing publicly funded secondary and tertiary care in England. Methods: We extracted data from the industry-run Disclosure UK database, analysing payment distribution descriptively and identifying trends in medians with the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. The payment value and number per NHS trust were explained using random effects models. Results: Between 2015 and 2018, 116 companies reported paying £60,253,421.86 to 235 trusts. As a share of payments to all healthcare organisations the number of payments to trusts rose from 38.64% to 39.48%, but their value dropped from 33.01% to 23.61%. While the number of all payment types rose, fees for service and consultancy and contributions to costs of events increased by 61.55% and 29.43%, respectively. The median payment values decreased significantly for trusts overall, including those with lower autonomy from central government; providing acute services; and from four of the eight regions of England. The random effects model showed that trusts with all other service profiles received a significantly lower value of payments on average than acute trusts; and trusts from East England received significantly less than those from London. However, trusts enjoying greater autonomy from government did not receive significantly more payments than others. Trusts also received significantly lower (but not fewer) payments in 2018 than in 2015. Conclusion: NHS trusts were losing importance as funding targets relative to other healthcare organisations. Industry payment strategies shifted towards engaging with NHS trusts using events sponsorship, consultancies, and smaller payments. Industry prioritised payments to trusts with specific service and geographical profiles. More granular disclosure is necessary to understand the role of corporate funding across the health system.

The number of LinkedIn users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 1.5 million users (+4.51 percent). After the eighth consecutive increasing year, the LinkedIn user base is estimated to reach 34.7 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. User figures, shown here with regards to the platform LinkedIn, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

The number of Pinterest users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+3.14 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Pinterest user base is estimated to reach 9.88 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Pinterest users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform pinterest, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

The number of Instagram users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 2.1 million users (+7.02 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Instagram user base is estimated to reach 32 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Instagram users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here with regards to the platform instagram, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).