UK Government to Introduce Bill for Mandatory NHS-Wide Patient Records

Legislation to create a single patient record by forcing GPs and hospitals to share patient data will be announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday, The Times reported. The single patient record plan forms part of a £10 billion digitisation of the health service. For the first time the record will be used across all healthcare providers.

It is set to be available to clinicians in parts of the NHS as early as next year, including maternity and elderly care, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said patients were tired of repeating their medical histories at each appointment.

“As patients, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to repeat your medical history at every appointment.

When paramedics arrive to heart attack and stroke patients, they can’t see the patients’ medical records, putting them in even greater danger,” Streeting said. ” Patient Safety Minister Dr Zubir Ahmed, a transplant surgeon in Glasgow, said the present way of working was unacceptable.

In January 2026 Dr Zubir Ahmed was not able to perform a kidney transplant because he could not access the patient’s full history quickly enough on a weekend.

He described needing to analyse symptoms reported by the family to exclude cancer but being unable to interrogate GP records in detail at the weekend. Pregnant women currently go through their entire medical history in a first appointment with a midwife, relying on memory, because midwives do not have access to official records.

Dr Maurice Cohen, consultant geriatrician and deputy medical director at North Middlesex Hospital, said a single patient record would mean the NHS “wrapping ourselves around the patient rather than the patient wrapping themselves around us”.

Shared records already exist in some parts of England, such as Yorkshire and the Humber. The new system is likely to use existing infrastructure such as the NHS App. At present GPs are the data controllers for their patient records while individual hospitals currently handle their own data.

The legislation will shift responsibility and ownership of the data and force the sharing of information. The legislation will be part of a health bill that will scrap NHS England by 2027. The bill was not part of Labour’s manifesto.

The plan to create a single national IT system for the NHS was launched in 2002 and abandoned a decade later after costs reached £12 billion. 5 million patients opted out. The NHS Alliance, which represents hospitals and NHS leaders, said members want the bill to spell out clearly who is responsible for patient data when used for care and for other purposes such as research.

The British Medical Association’s GP committee has criticised any move to take control of data away from GPs. Dr Katie Bramall, who chairs the BMA GP committee, has said GPs could take collective action against the government over its plans for patient data.

The King’s Speech on Wednesday will also include legislation on water regulation, policing, immigration reform, closer alignment with the European Union, an energy independence bill, and a bill to implement the Fingleton review into Britain’s nuclear regulation.

The speech is also expected to include the full nationalisation of British Steel. The government seized day-to-day control of British Steel in April 2025.