NHS reforms including a single patient record system will mean 20,000 fewer visits to A&E a year, the Department for Health and Social Care has claimed, after it missed its target for slashing emergency waiting times.
The NHS Modernisation Bill, set to have its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday, will see fragmented health records joined up across the country for the first time.
It will mean all NHS providers, including hospitals and GPs, will be required to share data, so that doctors and nurses across England can see a patient’s medical history, no matter where they are treated.
This means patients will no longer have to keep repeating their story to different NHS staff, with a “single point of truth” leading to more joined-up care, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
open image in galleryClinicians will be able to see the full picture when and where it is needed, with a complete view of the patient’s medicines, allergies and prescribing history, the government said.
The DHSC argued this would allow clinicians to deliver safer treatment and will save the NHS more than £20million from reducing medication errors, adverse drug reactions and duplicate prescribing.
Along with virtual care, the single patient record will reduce A&E attendances for frail patients by around 10,000, thanks to better community care, and another 10,000 from fewer misdiagnoses, the department claimed.
It is estimated the reforms would result in 6,000 fewer people being admitted to hospital each year, based on avoided A&E visits, better heart failure management and improved mental health care co-ordination.
The department also estimated it could save doctors around 500,000 hours a year by having patient data available on the spot, reducing time spent searching for information and inputting data.
Wes Streeting is gearing up to launch his own intervention on the reforms, just weeks after he quit the post, where he will urge the government not to abandon its NHS reform agenda.
Giving a speech in the House of Commons on Monday, the former health secretary – who is vying to take over as prime minister – will refer to claims from Sir Keir and chancellor Rachel Reeves that the improvement in waiting lists is the result of investment in the NHS.
open image in galleryBut Mr Streeting will warn: “Those who claim recent improvements in NHS performance are simply the result of more money are making exactly the same mistake that has held the NHS back for years.
“Investment matters, but we’re combining investment with reform: embracing technology, cutting bureaucracy, improving productivity and changing how care is delivered.
“That’s why we’re seeing more patients treated and better value delivered for taxpayers. That’s the difference between managing decline and delivering change.”
He will also say the single patient record is “one of the most important reforms of the NHS for decades”, adding: “It is frankly unsafe as well as absurd that patients are still being asked to repeat their medical history every time they access a different NHS service.
“It is vital that this reform puts power in the hands of patients: giving them more ease and convenience, choice and control. We’ve got to take on the producer interests who think patient data belongs to them, rather than patients.”
It comes after the government hit a key target on cutting the number of people waiting for NHS care – but figures published earlier this month showed it missed targets to improve waiting times for A&E care by the end of 2025-26.
The data showed 76.9 per cent of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es in April, up from 77.1 per cent in March.
The government and NHS England had set a target of March this year for 78 per cent of patients attending A&E to be admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours.
While DHSC said the reforms would give patients more control over their care, with safeguards, audit trails and choice over how their data is used, the British Medical Association (BMA), the union which represents doctors, raised fears the new law would open the possibility that patient data is used inappropriately.
Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of the BMA’s GP committee England, said GPs have protected patients’ confidential records since the NHS’s creation in 1948.
He requested clarification that this duty will not be taken away, as doing so would “raise serious questions about who is safeguarding patients’ data”.
Dr Wrigley added in his statement: “It remains unclear what form the single patient record will take and if it will build on existing technologies, such as GP Connect, which already opens up the GP record to NHS organisations offering direct care, or if it will require a wholesale duplication of existing health records with control of this copy given to government.”
But health secretary James Murray, who was appointed earlier this month after Mr Streeting resigned, said the measures will make care safer, while saving clinicians time.
open image in gallery“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”, he said.
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.”
Clinicians will get improved access to records as early as 2027 for specialities including maternity and frailty care.
Pregnant women are currently required to go through their entire medical history in a first appointment with a midwife, relying on memory. This can result in gaps in information and can be distressing for those who have suffered baby loss.
Dr Michael Cocker, consultant obstetrician at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said it will “set a new benchmark” for maternity care.
And Dr Maurice Cohen, consultant geriatrician at North Middlesex Hospital and clinical director at the London Frailty Network, said the single patient record would mean the NHS is “wrapping ourselves around the patient rather than the patient wrapping themselves around us”.
The Bill will also abolish NHS England and transfer most of its functions to the DHSC or integrated care boards (ICBs), with the aim of cutting bureaucracy, reducing duplication and freeing up resources for frontline services.
Meanwhile, John Browett has been named chairman of the new Online NHS Trust, which will provide virtual specialist care for patients through the NHS app and video consultations.
Launching in 2027, NHS Online will be a new, optional, online service allowing patients to connect digitally with clinicians across England.