'Single patient record' to become available via NHS App by 2028

The NHS will introduce a ‘single patient record’ (SPR) available on the NHS App by 2028, bringing a patient’s medical records and other relevant information into one place.

This will make patients’ data visible to clinicians across different care settings, according to the Government’s 10-year plan published yesterday.

It will introduce new legislation placing a duty on providers, including GP practices, to make the information they record about patients available to them.

Community pharmacies will also be linked to the SPR, as the Government said it will increase their role in the management of long-term conditions.

Subject to parliamentary time, from 2028 patients will be able to view it on the NHS App and over time it will also include a ‘personalised account’ of health risk, drawing from lifestyle, demographic and genomic data.

The plan said: ‘The SPR will bring together all a patient’s medical records into one place. Clinicians will be able to securely access it in order to deliver higher quality care – and patients will be able to add their own data from clinically validated wearables.

‘The SPR will operate as a patient passport, making sure patients get seamless care no matter where they are in the NHS.

‘It will end many of the frustrations patients told us about in our public engagement. No more repeated stories. No more appointments where the clinician does not know what happened at the previous one.’

The SPR will also include ‘contextual’ information about patients, such as housing status or caring responsibilities.

The plan added: ‘Since clinicians do not currently have access to patient records from different care settings, they often see patients without knowing enough about their context.

‘For example, they often do not know their patient’s housing status, level of digital exclusion or caring responsibilities.

‘The introduction of the Single Patient Record will change that, by making information visible across different care settings. It will also enable clinicians to better understand contextual as well as clinical information.’

Pharmacies will also be able to access it, as over the next five years the Government will transition them from being focused largely on dispensing medicines to offering more clinical services.

The plan said that pharmacists will have a bigger role in the treatment of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

It will also expand their role in vaccine delivery and in screening for risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

It added: ‘Over time, community pharmacy will be securely joined up to the single patient record, to help them provide a seamless service and to give GPs sight of patient management.

‘As community pharmacists increasingly become able to independently prescribe, we will increase their role in the management of long-term conditions, complex medication regimes, and treatment of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

‘We will also give community pharmacy a bigger role in prevention by expanding their role in vaccine delivery and in screening for risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.’

The plan also said that the NHS App will be expanded to include a new ‘My NHS GP’ tool, which will handle non-urgent care enquiries using AI.

As previously announced, the NHS App will also get an AI feature that will allow patients to discuss their health issues and help guide their GP consultations.

Read all of Pulse’s coverage on the 10-year plan here.