New legislation to be announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday will compel GPs and hospitals in England to share patient data, creating a single, secure digital record for every individual. The move forms part of a £10 billion plan to digitise the NHS and is expected to be contained in a health bill that also aims to abolish NHS England by 2027.
Legislation for a single patient record
The government will mandate the creation of a Single Patient Record (SPR) for each person, consolidating medical history, test results, prescriptions and other health information into one accessible file. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed that clinicians in areas such as maternity and frailty care could use the SPR as early as next year, with patients able to view their own record through the NHS App from 2028. The record is intended to act as a “digital front door” to healthcare services and is a central plank of the government’s 10‑Year Health Plan, supporting a shift from hospital‑based care to community and preventative services.
Benefits for patients and clinicians
Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the SPR as a “gamechanger” that would save lives. “As patients, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to repeat your medical history at every appointment,” he said. “When paramedics arrive to heart attack and stroke patients, they can’t see the patients’ medical records, putting them in even greater danger.” Currently, some emergency information – such as current medicines and known allergies – is available, but hospitals often cannot access a patient’s full history, and GPs rely on emailed letters from consultants to learn what happened during a hospital stay. The DHSC said the SPR would mean patients receive safer, quicker and more accurate care, with fewer duplicate tests and reduced medication errors. Dr Alec Price-Forbes, national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, said the system would “revolutionise patient care across the country”. The department estimates that sharing data across organisations will save NHS staff around 140,000 hours annually.
Streeting also emphasised patient control and transparency, noting that the SPR would give individuals a “single, secure and authoritative account of their data” with clear safeguards, audit trails and choices over how their information is used. The DHSC said the system would be designed with “privacy by design and default”, ensuring staff only see information relevant to their role, and that patients would be consulted throughout its development.
Concerns over liability and data control
Despite the promised benefits, the legislation has sparked significant unease among GPs and professional bodies over who will be responsible for the accuracy and security of shared data. Currently, GPs act as the data controllers for their patients’ records and can share them with third parties for research purposes, while individual hospitals manage their own data. The new law will shift responsibility and ownership, forcing the sharing of information – but the details of that shift remain contentious.
GP leaders are said to be concerned about liability for data errors introduced by other healthcare providers into the SPR. They have warned that without statutory clarity and indemnity, data sharing could be slowed rather than accelerated. The British Medical Association (BMA) has stated that GPs could be held liable for “abnormal or erroneous” information entered by third parties into patient records, and that once data becomes part of the GP record, the GP takes over responsibility for it. The BMA has previously called for doctors to retain control over GP data within the SPR, rather than ceding it to the DHSC. Minutes from an NHS England Data, Digital and Technology Committee meeting in May 2025 indicated that NHS England – which is set to be merged into the DHSC – is expected to assume the data controller role for the SPR, a move that GP leaders have pushed back against, arguing it could damage trust and risk patient confidentiality.
The NHS Alliance, which represents hospitals and NHS leaders, echoed these concerns. In a statement, the Alliance said: “A single patient record could make the NHS work better and help different services join up more smoothly. It also has the potential to give patients more control over their own care. Our members want the bill to spell out clearly who is responsible for patient data, both when it’s used to deliver care and when it’s used for other purposes, such as research. That means being explicit about who controls which data, who is legally responsible if things go wrong, what data can be used for, and what patients should be told. Without that clarity, there is a real risk the bill will struggle to get through parliament smoothly and that public trust in the single patient record will be undermined.”
Privacy and security are further flashpoints. While the DHSC has said the SPR will be robust against data breaches and that public and healthcare professionals will be consulted on its design, past initiatives have faced controversy. The NHS has experienced high‑profile data breaches, including a ransomware attack on blood test provider Synnovis in June 2024 that affected major London hospitals. A previous attempt to centralise GP data – the General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) programme – also generated widespread public concern over privacy and trust. The BMA, as of May 2026, is urging GP practices to take collective action by ceasing to sign up for new voluntary data sharing agreements for secondary uses of patient data, citing the imposed 2026/27 contract and unsafe workloads. The union has stressed that this action is lawful and aims to ensure data sharing agreements are rigorously scrutinised.
The ambition for a single digital patient record has been supported by previous proposals from think tanks and policy influencers, including the Tony Blair Institute. Yet the practical and legal questions – particularly around liability, control and consent – remain unresolved as the government presses ahead with what it calls a “gamechanger” for the NHS.