Single Patient Record – your health at your fingertips

The Single Patient Record (SPR) will be a digital record that brings together a patient’s health information in one, secure, easy-to-access place.

It will give NHS health and care providers the information they need to support safer, faster, more co-ordinated care.

Contents

The 6 sections here give information on the different aspects of the SPR – click each item to visit the section:

Learn about the Single Patient Record

What is the Single Patient Record?

The Single Patient Record (SPR) will be a digital record that joins patient data together in one secure, easy-to-access place.

From 2028, we expect people to start viewing their SPR data through the NHS App. Healthcare professionals will access the patient information they need from one single place too, supporting safer, quicker and more accurate care.

There is strong public support for an SPR if proper safeguards, such as access levels by job role and audit trails are in place.

The National engagement on data: cohort 2 report details public feedback on the SPR. We will continue to involve the public as the SPR develops as part of our patient-first approach.

Why the Single Patient Record matters

The SPR is crucial to delivering the commitments in the government’s 10 Year Health Plan For England. It will help enable the 3 strategic shifts from:

1. Hospital to community: allowing healthcare professionals to share patient data, develop connected care plans and support people to self-manage closer to home.
2. Sickness to prevention: improving predictive and personalised care by including data from wearable devices and, in the future, the genomics record.
3. Analogue to digital: providing one comprehensive patient record, allowing healthcare professionals to spend less time on finding healthcare information, and more on care.

The SPR will:

  • give people a single trusted record of their health: the SPR will bring together medical history, test results, treatments, and prescriptions in one place. From 2028, people will access this data through the NHS App.
  • provide healthcare professionals with a complete, reliable view of each patient: this will be accessible across care settings through secure NHS systems; it will reduce duplication, close gaps in information, and support safer, faster, more co-ordinated care.
  • empower patients: the SPR will give role-based access control to SPR data and audit trails on data access.
  • improve the user experience: it will be designed with input from healthcare professionals and the public, bringing together existing systems wherever possible.

Single Patient Record principles

These principles will guide the design process, ensuring that the SPR is built on trust, transparency, and safety:

  • safe by design: every aspect will be designed to enhance patient safety.
  • secure by design: we build in strong, reliable security from the start. Working with national cyber security experts, we use proportionate, risk‑led safeguards; are transparent about our decisions; and continually improve in line with UK Secure by Design policy.
  • interoperable by design: to ensure NHS systems work seamlessly together.
  • cost effective: to deliver maximum value to patients, public and healthcare professionals.

Please send your questions or comments on the SPR to the team; visit the contact us section of this page for more details.

Information for NHS and social care professionals

The SPR is one of the most ambitious transformations in the history of the NHS.

By learning from past experiences and building on successes, our programme aims to:

  • make sure the public are confident in how we handle their data: trust in data security is essential for patients and the public to use the system.
  • follow user-centred design and engagement principles: designing with healthcare professionals and the public from the start to ensure the solution meets real needs, and is developed through open, transparent communication.
  • gradually roll out and evolve: rolling out the system in small, manageable steps rather than all at once will allow us to learn and improve with each stage.
  • ensure interoperability and data quality: share patient information easily and accurate between different healthcare systems using common standards.
  • focus on outcomes, not just the technology: the SPR is a transformation programme to deliver national outcomes and support a new model of healthcare.
  • future-proof the SPR: design an SPR solution that is flexible to adapt to new technologies and AI capability

Benefits

By prioritising trust, transparency, and safety throughout its development, the SPR aims to bridge gaps across care settings; and the benefits will be far-reaching:

  • improve patient safety, giving clinicians the accurate, relevant information they need to care for the patient.
  • support continuity of care through faster digital discharge summaries, up to date and accurate data, across care settings and less reliance on people having to repeat their medical history unnecessarily.
  • reduce administrative workload, such as duplication, record-chasing, creation and processing of discharge summaries.
  • reduce clinical risks as critical information such as allergies, diagnosis, medication, safeguarding care will be available across healthcare settings.
  • respect patient data through role-based access control and audit trails on data access through the SPR.

See our progress to date

Have your say

We would like to hear your questions, comments and feedback. Details can be found in the Contacts section of this page.

Security and privacy

We know that when it comes to health data, trust is everything.

That’s why security and privacy are fundamental to the design of the SPR.

From the very beginning, we have listened to what patients, clinicians, and the public have told us: they support the idea of a joined-up health record; but only if it’s built with the strongest safeguards.

The SPR is being designed to protect personal data. It will use the highest standards of cyber security and information governance: where only relevant, authorised people can access the right information, at the right time, for the right reasons.

The findings from NHS England’s National engagement on data in early 2024 showed strong, widespread public support for the SPR, conditional on getting the safeguards right​.

Participants discussed what would make a single patient record system trustworthy to them, which included:

  • tiered access for health and care professionals: varying levels of access, based primarily on urgency and breadth of care responsibilities, ensuring access is restricted to the relevant parts of a single patient record alongside an audit trail.
  • security: High levels of security, including staff training as well as technical measures.
  • transparency in the design and working of the SPR: providing information to the public about the move to an SPR and its implications, including clarity on who would have access to the SPR.
  • accountability: clear oversight structures of how data is managed and used, including clear processes and sanctions if things go wrong.
  • patient choice: ensuring patients are informed and have a say on how data they consider sensitive is shared.

Secure by Design

Secure by Design guides every decision in the design and development of the SPR. It reflects our commitment to:

  • proactive protection: security will be embedded from the start, not added later. Every part of the SPR will be designed to identify and reduce risks before they happen.
  • resilience and reliability: the system will be built to withstand threats and recover quickly, ensuring continuity of care even in the face of cyber challenges.
  • transparency and accountability: we will be open about how security decisions are made and hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards.
  • collaboration with experts: we will work closely with national bodies like the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure best practice is followed.
  • continuous improvement: we will monitor, learn, and adapt to new threats as they emerge.

Privacy by design and default

Privacy by design and default means putting privacy protections directly into the design and development of the SPR from the start. It’s about:

  • patient privacy: the SPR model will be designed to make sure patient information is kept confidential.
  • minimising data use: we will only collect and use what’s necessary for clear, legitimate purposes and controls, so staff only see the information they need for their role.
  • designing for everyone: privacy protections will be built to support all users, including children and those with protected characteristics.

Implementation

To help us put this into practice, we are working with stakeholders such as patients, public clinicians, national bodies like the Information Commissioner’s Office, National Data Guardian and the National Cyber Security Centre, local NHS organisations, and industry partners.

Together, we are shaping a system that protects people’s data, supports better care, and earns public trust.

We are building something that works for everyone and doing it the right way from the very beginning.

Progress to date

The SPR is in the very early stages of development. This timeline shows the progress we have made so far:

October 2024

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting announces his ambition to join up patient data into a single record, shared across the NHS.

November 2024 – April 2025

National Engagement on data. Cohort 2 public deliberations and inclusive engagement to understand their views on an SPR-type service.

May 2025

Engagement begins with healthcare professionals, representative bodies, data privacy organisations and other experts to understand requirements and views to develop design and delivery options that support digital inclusion and meet equality standards.

A Request for Information (RFI) opened to the technology market, seeking expert input on how best to deliver a secure, user-centred solution that builds on existing infrastructure.

July 2025

Analysis of technical architecture solutions to understand which are most suitable for further exploration.

Autumn 2025 – Spring 2026

Test and learn phase begins. The team explored user needs and technical feasibility to understand different ways to approach the problems.

During Discovery, we identified user needs, challenges and opportunities through surveys, interviews, stakeholder workshops, and process analysis to uncover challenges and opportunities.

Learn more Discovery research.

3 technical approaches were explored in a safe and secure way, using our existing platforms and in collaboration with 3 of our shared care record suppliers: InterSystems; Interweave; Orion.

1. Shared Care Record – hub and spoke: joins existing regional shared care records, linked via a central API (application programming interface: a set of rules and protocols that lets different software systems communicate with each other).

2. Central integration model: a centrally managed data store connected to multiple care settings.

3. Virtual data layer: connects existing systems in the background to provide a joined-up view for users.

The technical approaches are not independent of each other, and insights gained from each inform the most appropriate design for the SPR.

Suppliers built environments to allow us to test our assumptions and see how existing systems could be extended to meet the needs of the SPR.

All engagement with the suppliers has been completed in line with NHS England procurement policy.

Their involvement does not guarantee any future work and will neither give them an advantage, nor exclude them from any future opportunities.

Similarly, suppliers not involved in this phase will not be disadvantaged from taking part in any future procurement.

2026 – 2028

During 2026 the programme will work with healthcare professionals, the public and suppliers to develop and test prototypes for real-life scenarios in priority areas such as maternity care.

Frontline staff and providers will play a key role in shaping how the service is rolled out, ensuring it works in practice and meets the needs of different users across the system.

This phased approach aims to support safe, trusted and user‑centred adoption, enabling the service to deliver value for patients, the public and the health and care system.

Real life experiences and insights

The SPR programme is currently in the ‘test and learn’ phase, where the team has completed discovery research with users to understand the problems that need to be solved.

This included desk research alongside user research with clinicians, patients and stakeholders through surveys, interviews and workshops.

This quote from a hospital trust-based nurse, highlights a common theme throughout discovery: “Accessing data is like walking into a library and having to read all the books to find the specific info you need.”

A number of challenges were highlighted:

Patient concerns sharing health data

  • Without clarity on how their data is used, people are concerned about sharing health information, which leaves healthcare professionals unable to access critical patient information at the point of care.

Fragmented data

  • NHS staff must sign in to different systems to find the information they need.
  • Patients said their information was not shared across the right health services and professionals for their care, and they had to repeat their health history to multiple staff.

Boundaries block sharing

  • When care crosses organisational or regional lines, staff often can’t access full medical histories or care plans.

Gaps and inconsistencies

  • Healthcare workers are unable to access information from other trusts or gain a full picture of a patient’s health.

Too many sources of ‘truth’

  • Different systems and sources of information often conflict, and clinicians need to work out which information is the most timely and accurate.

Access and usability issues

  • There’s no unified, secure access standard so clinicians face multiple logins and poorly designed interfaces that don’t meet real-world clinical needs.

Structural and supplier barriers

  • Complex data ownership when ingesting or sharing patient data and supplier contracts can limit progress, interoperability and benefit sharing throughout the NHS.
  • This means we need to design for:
    • The real-world, which means tackling poor connectivity, multiple devices and time-critical situations
    • How people need to consume the information, based on the task they need to achieve or data they need to see
    • No additional interfaces (unless we remove some)
    • Users with accessibility needs or low digital confidence.

How to get involved

See our contact us section below.

Contact us

Queries and feedback

If you have a query or feedback on the NHS Singe Patient Record, please submit them through the Single Patient Record Portal.

For NHS staff, please join our Futures page to share your questions, comments and feedback.

Forums or events

If you would like a representative to speak at your forum or event, please email the team at england.spr@nhs.net.

Media enquiries

For any media enquiries, contact our Media team.