Streeting pushes single patient record plans with new data sharing laws

The Government will introduce new laws to make NHS patient data available across all NHS trusts and GP practices, as part of plans for a ‘single patient record’.

On the launch of a new ‘engagement exercise’ for the 10-year NHS plan, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has committed today to creating a ‘patient passport’ which brings together all patient information on the NHS App.

Primary care minister Stephen Kinnock confirmed to LBC this morning that a new data bill will be introduced next week by the MP Peter Kyle which will ‘streamline the system’ and give a ‘cast-iron guarantee over security’ of patient data.

Mr Kinnock also said a ‘single patient record’ will help to ‘drive up productivity and efficiency’ within the NHS.

‘We have to ensure we have the NHS working so there is a single patient record because we have a productivity and efficiency crisis in the NHS,’ he added.

Health secretary Wes Streeting signalled to plans for a single patient record earlier this month at the RCGP’s annual conference, where he also announced that NHS England will take over responsibility for sharing this data where patients have consented for it to be used in studies.

Writing in The Guardian today, Mr Streeting said that the current ‘revolution in science and technology’ allows the Government to ‘introduce patient passports’ so that GPs and hospital doctors have a full medical history.

He said the ‘conversation’ launched today on the 10-year plan ‘will include questions such as how to ensure patients’ data is protected and anonymised’ as he recognised that people ‘understandably have concerns about Big Brother’.

The Government will seek the ‘best possible deal’ in return for sharing patient data, such as through ‘extra funding’ or cheaper medicines, Mr Streeting suggested.

Plans for a single patient record are key to the Government’s proposed shift from ‘analogue to digital’.

DHSC said this morning: ‘In transforming the NHS from analogue to digital, the government will create a more modern NHS by bringing together a single patient record, summarising patient health information, test results, and letters in one place, through the NHS App.

‘It will put patients in control of their own medical history, meaning they don’t have to repeat it at every appointment, and that staff have the full picture of patients’ health.

‘New laws are set to be introduced to make NHS patient health records available across all NHS trusts, GP surgeries and ambulance services in England – speeding up patient care, reducing repeat medical tests, and minimising medication errors.’

Data sharing across organisations will save NHS staff ‘an estimated 140,000 hours’ every year, the DHSC claimed.

In response to this policy, the BMA raised questions about how data will be safeguarded and how the Government will prevent digital exclusion.

Council chair Philip Banfield said: ‘The idea of a digital “patient passport” may sound convenient in principle, and doctors are as frustrated by IT systems that do not talk to each other as their patients are surprised by it.

‘But discussions and choices around patient data need to involve cast-iron safeguards and ensure they do not exclude those who are not digitally engaged or literate.’

NHS data projects, such as the Federated Data Platform (FDP), have been the subject of controversy among GPs and the wider NHS in recent years.

And last year, the BMA refused to back a UK Biobank campaign asking all GP practices to release patient data via their IT systems.

Earlier this year, Pulse exclusively revealed that NHS England took down a web page which hinted at plans to use GP Connect to create a ‘central database’ of GP-held patient records.