GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king\u2019s speech on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a \u00a310bn digitisation of the health service.<\/p>\n
The health secretary, Wes Streeting<\/a>, said making the data accessible in one place would be a \u201cgamechanger\u201d that would save lives.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cAs patients, there\u2019s nothing more frustrating than having to repeat your medical history at every appointment,\u201d Streeting said. \u201cWhen paramedics arrive to heart attack and stroke patients, they can\u2019t see the patients\u2019 medical records, putting them in even greater danger.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a gamechanger that means NHS<\/a> staff can see patients\u2019 medical records, allowing them to deliver better care faster and more conveniently, and even saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Although some emergency information is already available \u2013 such as current medicines and known allergies \u2013 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> by 2027.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The department added that upcoming legislation would enable information related to a patient\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Dr Alec Price-Forbes, the national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said it would \u201crevolutionise patient care across the country\u201d.<\/p>\n GPs are currently the data controllers for their patients\u2019 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n