Gamechanger’: Govt formally introduces Single Patient Record
The SPR has been formally introduced in the NHS Modernisation Bill and is intended to give patients better control of their data and support clinicians. The bill also proposes giving more commissioning powers to ICBs.
The NHS Modernisation Bill, formerly called the Health Bill, introduces the Single Patient Record (SPR) and the removal of NHS England (NHSE).
It aims for the SPR to allow all NHS providers to share patient’s full medical history so they “won’t have to repeat their story unnecessarily”.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) said it will offer “safer, more coordinated care” and support care “closer to home”, with patients benefitting from “clear safeguards, audit trails, and choice over how their data is used”.
Read more: SPR and pharmacy ‘overlooked’: Sector reacts to King’s speech
It will offer clinicians “greater efficiency” to work without missing information or needing to check “multiple places to find the same data”, the DH added.
Health minister Karin Smyth said the SPR will give patients “real control” through a “single, secure and authoritative account of their data for the first time ever”.
Read more: DH: Creating single patient record expected to take several years
“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,” she said.
✕
NHSE national chief clinical information officer Dr Alec Price-Forbes said patients will be able to trust “their data is always secure” as “different levels of access to reflect different needs” will be built in.
Duplication
The bill will also “cut layers of bureaucracy” by transferring NHSE’s functions into the DH and the wider system by March 2027.
The government originally announced plans to abolish NHSE in March 2025.
The DH said this will “reduce duplication” and “free up resources to be reinvested in the frontline”.
Read more: What we know about Labour’s new health secretary James Murray
The bill also includes changes to the role of local health bodies, so they have “real flexibility to design and deliver health services to best meet the needs of their local populations”.
The DH wants to transfer all commissioning responsibilities to integrated care boards (ICBs) with the exception for “the most specialised commissioning functions”.
It said ICBs as local strategic commissioners are “best placed to integrate health services”, including for pharmacy services.
Read more: Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary
Devolving decisions to a local level “where different services can better integrate” will support patients, it added.
The bill also proposes to implement recommendations of the 2025 Dash review by abolishing Healthwatch England (HWE) and local Healthwatch.
Removing HWE will “embed the voice of patients back into central government’s work” as it proposes the appointment of a dedicated national director of patient experience to support this.
Read more: IN FULL: Starmer reveals plans to abolish NHSE
It added that local Healthwatch work should be transferred to ICBs and local authority engagement functions to put “accountability closer to clinical teams and clinicians”.
It follows the King announcing the government’s plans last week to “push forward” with health service reforms through the introduction of the NHS Modernisation Bill, such as the rollout of SPR by 2028.
In January, the DH has revealed that plans to create a single patient record with the inclusion of community pharmacy are “expected to take several years” after it said that its original deadline may have been “overly optimistic”.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
.png/fit-in/1280x9999/filters:no_upscale()){kind=logo}
){kind=logo}
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)