Single patient record could cut 20,000 A&E visits a year, gov claims
- 1 June 2026
- The government says the proposed single patient record could prevent 20,000 A&E visits a year and save more than £20m annually in medicines costs
- The NHS Modernisation Bill, which is being debated in parliament today, would require all NHS providers to share patient data
- Clinicians are set to gain access to shared records from 2027, while NHS Online has been formally established with John Browett appointed as chair
The government has claimed that the planned single patient record (SPR) could prevent up to 20,000 A&E visits a year and save the NHS more than £20 million annually.
The NHS Modernisation Bill, which was announced in the King’s Speech on 13 May 2026 and will be debated in parliament today (1 June), includes proposed reforms such as the abolition of NHS England and a requirement for all NHS providers to share patient data to create a SPR.
The government says the SPR will help join up fragmented health information and improve access to patient records across care settings.
It will give clinicians across the country a complete view of patients’ medicines, allergies and prescribing history, allowing them to deliver safer treatment while saving more than £20 million per year in unnecessary medicines expenditure, according to ministers.
James Murray, health secretary, said: “When I was in my 20s, I was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition. I am now symptom-free, and I get fantastic support from the NHS.
“But I know how much effort it can be to keep different parts of the health service joined up, and how distressing it is for some patients to repeat their medical history over and over.
“That’s why our Single Patient Record is so important. It sits at the heart of our NHS Modernisation Bill and will end this once and for all – making care safer while saving clinicians’ time.
“My priority as health secretary is to modernise the NHS and make it work better for patients. This is our 10 year health plan in action — making the NHS fit for the future by building it around patients’ lives, not the other way round.”
The government estimates that 20,000 fewer patients will have to go to A&E thanks to these reforms.
The estimate is based on evidence suggesting that the SPR, alongside virtual care, could reduce A&E attendances among frail patients by around 10,000 a year, with a further 10,000 avoided through fewer misdiagnoses resulting from clinicians having access to a complete patient record.
Clinicians will get improved access to records as early as 2027 for specialties including maternity and frailty care.
Dr Alec Price-Forbes, national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said: “For too long, patient information has been held in silos, leading to patients having to repeat their stories, and creating workarounds, potential duplication or gaps in understanding for clinicians.
“The Single Patient Record will give us an invaluable single point of truth for both the clinician and the patient and means higher quality, safer, more joined-up and more personalised care for patients.”
The NHS Modernisation Bill second reading comes on the day the chair of the NHS’s new online hospital trust has been named, following a recruitment process which started in January 2026.
Launching in 2027, NHS Online will be a new, optional online service allowing patients to digitally connect with clinicians across England. Doctors will be able to provide appointments through the service, which the government says will help reduce waiting lists and improve access to care.
It has now been formally established as the Online NHS Trust with John Browett as chair.
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We have had this on a Kent Wide basis for a few years now, and it doesn’t seem to have impacted ED attendances. People are still having problems getting to see their GP in the first place, so go to ED or UTCs, so I don’t see how this will prevent that.
Every time I have tried to get a GP appointment since Covid I have been told to complete an on-line Econsult, which tells me that either my condition is serious and to go to ED, or to phone 111, I’m not sure how the single patient record would help the Econsult provide a better service.
Does any of this actually stop patients from having to tell their story over and over? In my experience, even when you provide a complete medical history on a form, the clinician has not even looked at it and acts surprised when you mention something that you’ve already written on it. You also need to direct their attention to previous scan results etc. I think we need to stop with the myth that shared records reduce the number of times the patient is required to tell their story.
It will be unlawful, and the worst possible betrayal of trust, for the only legitimate controllers of patient data, our healthcare providers, to to transfer our confidential health data, entrusted to them, to the central control of agencies who demonstrably cannot be trusted with patient data. The evidence of that is everywhere. For example, they offered patients an opt-out from the Summary Care Record (SCR) and then proceeded to secretly extract a SCR data set from the GP record of every patient registered with a GP in England, including those who had opted out. When found out, by a patient who had opted out in 2014, they persisted in lying until 2026. They finally admitted in 2022 that they had done this but insisted that they had concealed the SCRs of those who opted out. They were unwilling to explain the legitimate purpose of a SCR that was concealed from everyone. In 2026 the website of the NCRS lists the access codes of those who can access SCRs without the consent of the patient – in other words those who can access the SCRs of patients who opted out. The ways in which patients have been deliberately deceived, in contravention of data protection law are far, far too numerous to describe here. In transferring our records to people who cannot be trusted, our healthcare providers will be denying us the protection of the law to which we are entitled, because, if the controller ignores the law, the law might as well not exist. If the ICO does not uphold the law, the law might as well not exist. This treachery is not what patients need. It must be stopped. Our only hope is for Parliament to refuse to allow this legislation to become law. If it does become law it will legalise abuse of human rights and contravention of data protection law. Even emigrating will not escape the malign influence of the NHS because they will retain and misuse our legacy records. This is inexcusable in every possible way. Abuse is no basis for healthcare but it is the basis of the NHS.