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Dan Prescott, vice president of EPR transformation at Nordic Global, explains why a single patient record could be one of the NHS’s most transformative digital reforms.
The government’s proposed Single Patient Record, currently being debated in Parliament, has the potential to become one of the most significant NHS digital transformation initiatives in recent years.
With the NHS waiting list in England still standing at around 7.1 million in March, the need for reforms that improve productivity, reduce avoidable delays and support faster access to treatment remains clear. At a time of unprecedented demand, workforce pressures and rising expectations around patient care, securely connecting information across the healthcare system could help address some of the NHS’s most persistent operational challenges.
While much of the debate has focused on technology, the real opportunity lies in what a Single Patient Record could mean for healthcare professionals and patients. Done well, it could reduce administrative burden and support more seamless care across the NHS.
The challenge of fragmented information
Despite significant progress in NHS digitisation over the past decade, patient information is often still held across multiple systems and organisations. A patient’s medical history may be spread between GP practices, hospitals, community services, mental health providers and social care organisations, with varying degrees of connectivity between them.
For healthcare professionals, this fragmentation creates inefficiencies that affect both productivity and patient care. Patients can also find themselves repeating information at multiple points throughout their care journey.
The consequences extend beyond inconvenience. When healthcare professionals do not have access to a complete picture of a patient’s medical history, there is a greater risk of delays, duplicated activity and missed opportunities to deliver the most appropriate care.
Addressing these inefficiencies is becoming increasingly important. NHS England has asked organisations to achieve a 4% productivity improvement in 2025/26 while managing rising demand and tighter financial constraints. Better access to patient information should be viewed as a practical enabler of those objectives, helping staff spend less time searching for data and more time delivering care.
We have seen the benefits of this approach internationally. In Canada, our work supporting Alberta Health Services formed part of a province-wide digital transformation programme designed to make records accessible across more than 800 facilities. The lesson was clear: successful digital transformation depends as much on people and processes as it does on technology.
A single source of truth
The ambition behind a Single Patient Record is straightforward: to provide authorised healthcare professionals with secure access to the information they need, when they need it, regardless of where it was originally recorded.
Better information sharing has the potential to reduce duplication, streamline workflows and improve coordination between services. Clinicians can spend less time searching for information and more time focusing on patient care, while healthcare organisations gain greater visibility across patient pathways and resource utilisation.
Importantly, a Single Patient Record is not about creating a single central database. Rather, it is about ensuring information can be accessed appropriately across organisational boundaries.
While efficiency gains are important, the greatest benefits may be realised in patient care and safety.
Access to a more complete picture of a patient’s history, including medications, allergies, diagnoses and treatment plans, can support better-informed clinical decisions and help reduce avoidable errors. Whether treating a patient in an emergency department, managing a long-term condition or coordinating care across multiple services, clinicians are better placed to make decisions when they have timely access to accurate information.
The NHS is already seeing how digital tools can support safer care. Advanced clinical decision support systems, for example, have been shown to reduce prescribing-related medication errors by around 50%. A more comprehensive patient record could further strengthen these capabilities by ensuring clinicians have access to the most relevant and up-to-date information when making treatment decisions.
Patients also stand to benefit from a more seamless healthcare experience. Better communication between providers can reduce unnecessary repetition, minimise delays and improve the overall experience of navigating the health system. For people with complex or long-term conditions, the impact could be particularly significant.
Turning ambition into reality
The parliamentary debate reflects growing recognition that data and digital technologies must play a central role in the future of healthcare delivery.
However, the introduction of a Single Patient Record will only achieve its potential if implementation is approached thoughtfully. Technology alone will not solve the challenges of fragmented care. Success will require clear governance, strong interoperability standards, sustained investment and close collaboration across the NHS.
Healthcare organisations must also ensure that information is available within existing clinical workflows and that patients remain confident their data is being used securely and appropriately.
If those challenges can be addressed, the Single Patient Record could provide a foundation for a more efficient, connected and patient-centred NHS. At a time when the health service is under increasing pressure to do more with limited resources, that is an opportunity worth pursuing.
