£10 billion NHS overhaul ends patients repeating medical history at appointments
Key Points
- Health bill in Wednesday's king's speech creates single patient record across GPs, hospitals and paramedics
- £10bn digitisation programme funds the rollout, with maternity and frailty services getting access first from next year
- NHS England becomes data controller before the Department of Health and Social Care absorbs it by 2027
- BMA opposes the shift, arguing GPs must remain controllers of the GP record to protect patient trust
- NHS Alliance demands legal clarity on liability, warning vague rules could undermine public confidence in the new system
The government will legislate this week to create a single digital record for every NHS patient in England, ending the requirement to repeat medical history at every appointment.
The health bill, set out in the king’s speech on Wednesday, forms the legislative spine of a £10 billion NHS digitisation programme that Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the 2025 spending review, the Guardian reports.
The plan creates a single patient record (SPR) accessible to GPs, hospitals, paramedics, and other clinicians, pulling together fragmented data that currently sits in silos across thousands of NHS organisations.
The 10-year NHS plan published last year sets 2028 as the target for full SPR coverage across primary care, hospitals, and mental health services in England.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Guardian the change would let staff treat patients faster and more safely.
He said paramedics responding to heart attacks and strokes cannot currently see medical records, which puts patients in greater danger, and described the SPR as a game-changer that will save lives.
The bill will also abolish NHS England by 2027, folding its functions back into the Department of Health and Social Care.
What the SPR replaces
NHS data infrastructure currently fragments around the bodies that collect it.
GPs hold their own records and act as data controllers. Hospitals manage data on the patients they treat, and consultants email letters to GPs after discharge. Paramedics see only emergency information such as current medications and known allergies.
No clinician beyond a patient’s own GP holds a complete medical history at the point of care.
The SPR collapses these silos into a single account that follows the patient.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that clinicians in maternity and frailty services will gain access from next year, with wider rollout to follow.
The legislation will let patient information flow between providers while building in safeguards, audit trails and patient choice over secondary uses such as research.
Who controls the data?
The bill shifts responsibility for patient records away from individual GP practices. Campaign group MedConfidential obtained minutes from an NHS England Data, Digital and Technology Committee meeting in May 2025 under freedom of information laws.
The minutes confirmed that NHS England, which the bill will absorb into the Department of Health and Social Care, will become the data controller for the SPR.
The committee accepted that GPs cannot hold the role for a multi-service record covering primary care, hospitals, and mental health.
The British Medical Association opposes the shift. Mark Coley, IT lead on the BMA’s GP committee for England, said GPs must remain the data controller of the GP record.
The committee has warned that removing GP control risks damaging patient trust and confidentiality, and that without statutory clarity on liability for data errors that other providers introduce, sharing could slow rather than accelerate.
What it means for patients
The Department of Health and Social Care said patients will gain real control of their records through a single secure account, with audit trails showing who accessed what and choice over secondary uses such as research.
The department said it will consult the public and healthcare professionals throughout the design phase, and confirmed that ministers will draft the legislation with the threat of data breaches in mind.
For the millions of patients who use the NHS in England, the practical change means that going to A&E or returning to a GP after hospital treatment will no longer require restating allergies, current medications, and surgical history.
The political question, whether the bill commands the public and professional trust that earlier NHS data programmes lost, will run for the rest of the parliamentary session.
