GPs and hospitals in England to be required to share data to create single patient records
Wes Streeting says legislation will save lives, but GPs are concerned about liability for errors introduced by other providers
GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.
Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, said making the data accessible in one place would be a “gamechanger” that would save lives.
The legislation aims to spare patients from constantly having to repeat their medical history when turning up at hospital or being discharged back to their GP.
“As patients, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to repeat your medical history at every appointment,” Streeting said. “When paramedics arrive to heart attack and stroke patients, they can’t see the patients’ medical records, putting them in even greater danger.
“For the first time ever, the single patient record will mean patients are given real control over their care through a single, secure and authoritative account of their data.
“It will be a gamechanger that means NHS staff can see patients’ medical records, allowing them to deliver better care faster and more conveniently, and even saving lives.”
Although some emergency information is already available – such as current medicines and known allergies – hospitals often cannot access the full medical history of a patient. GPs have to wait for letters, sent by email, from consultants to be informed of what happened to their patient in the hospital.
The SPRs will be available to clinicians in parts of the NHS as early as next year, including maternity and frailty care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed. The legislation will be part of a health bill that will scrap NHS England by 2027.
The DHSC said patients would receive safer, quicker and more accurate healthcare as the SPRs join up fragmented health information from around the country. They would also have more control and transparency, with clear safeguards, audit trails and choice over how their data is used, while for clinicians it means no more working with missing information or having to check in multiple places to find the same data.
The department added that upcoming legislation would enable information related to a patient’s health and care to be processed for the purposes of establishing and operating the single patient records, but would be robust to the threat of data breaches, and that public and healthcare professionals would be consulted throughout its design.
Dr Alec Price-Forbes, the national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said it would “revolutionise patient care across the country”.
GPs are currently the data controllers for their patients’ records and can share them with third parties for research purposes, while individual hospitals handle their own data. The legislation will shift responsibility and ownership of the data and force the sharing of information.
GP leaders are said to be concerned about liability for data errors introduced by other providers, and warned that, without statutory clarity and indemnity, data sharing could be slowed rather than accelerated.
The British Medical Association has previously called for doctors to remain in control of GP data in the single patient record data, rather than the DHSC. Its GP committee has warned any move to take control of data away from GPs would damage trust and risk confidentiality.
The NHS Alliance, which represents hospitals and NHS leaders, said in a statement: “A single patient record could make the NHS work better and help different services join up more smoothly. It also has the potential to give patients more control over their own care.
“Our members want the bill to spell out clearly who is responsible for patient data, both when it’s used to deliver care and when it’s used for other purposes, such as research. That means being explicit about who controls which data, who is legally responsible if things go wrong, what data can be used for, and what patients should be told.
“Without that clarity, there is a real risk the bill will struggle to get through parliament smoothly and that public trust in the single patient record will be undermined.”
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