Tech suppliers asked to support single electronic health record across England

Labour health secretary’s vision for one record to rule 'em all, for each patient, set to come to market

The state health service for England has asked tech suppliers to submit ideas to help it build an online service for a single health record, as promised by the country's Health Minister last year.

NHS England, the non-departmental public body that runs the NHS in England, has published a request for information about the technical and data architecture, as well as the overall technical challenges involved. It also asks suppliers about the wider architectural consequences for the NHS and which systems or existing technologies might no longer be required.

The notice said it was at the early stage of scoping the Single Patient Record (SPR) and the pre-tender market engagement would "gain innovative ideas from the market to ensure that NHS England considers all options available and is approaching the SPR in the most effective way possible."

In October last year, the Department for Health and Social Care said the SPR would help create a "more modern NHS." It said the plan would bring patient health information, test results, and letters in one place, accessible through the NHS App.

"It will put patients in control of their own medical history, meaning they do not 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 minimizing medication errors," the department said.

Recent estimates found the cost of digitizing health and adult social care services across the UK might be £21 billion ($28 billion) over the next five years, with some £14.75 billion ($19.4 billion) of this needed in England alone, according to estimates by PA Consulting. The report commissioned by the Health Foundation, a charity, said across the UK, NHS would need £8 billion ($10.5 billion) in capital expenditure to fund improvements in software, hardware, electronic patient records, and wider IT infrastructure.

Publicly funded through taxation, NHS England's budget is around £171 billion ($225 billion) annually to serve a population of around 56 million people. In March 2025, the DHSC announced it would abolish NHS England and bring NHS management under its own control to create "a leaner national center" for the NHS.

As well as struggling for funding, the NHS has been severely hit by Covid-19, which saw resources focused on responding to the pandemic. The latest figures show waiting lists for elective consultant-led care at around 7.4 million, compared to 4.57 million before the virus outbreak. A survey by membership organization NHS Providers found NHS services are being scaled back and jobs cut as the demands of the government's financial "reset" become clear.

Whatever suppliers the government picks to help it build a single patient record for tens of millions of individuals, the NHS will have to cope with the problem of data quality in existing records. BMG Research found that nearly one in four (23 percent) of adults have noticed inaccuracies or missing details in their medical records.

The poll of 1,800 adults in England in March 2025, commissioned by campaign group Healthwatch, also found 26 percent of those who noticed inaccuracies said their personal details were wrong, while other errors included inaccurate records of medications, diagnoses or treatments. Sixteen percent of those who reported an inaccurate record said there were inaccuracies in the information about what medication they had taken.

In its Request for Information, NHS England also asked suppliers what they thought was important for the NHS to consider in delivering the SPR and about using AI to identify and solve problems.

History might provide some valuable lessons in managing NHS tech projects from a central authority when direct management control remains at the level of hospitals or trusts.

The National Programme for IT (NPfIT), which began contracting under the Labour government in 2003 with a budget estimated at £12.7 billion ($16.7 billion), fell dramatically short of its ambition to offer electronic health records throughout the NHS. In 2011, the National Audit Office (NAO) found that £2.7 billion ($3.5 billion) spent up to that date did not represent value for money. "Based on performance so far, the NAO has no grounds for confidence that the remaining planned spending of £4.3 billion ($5.6 billion) on care records systems will be any different," it said at the time.

While most NHS hospitals and other health providers have electronic records they are often procured at trust level, and fragmented regionally and nationally. In 2023, The Times reported that 12 percent of hospitals in England are still paper-based. ®