All NHS IT suppliers will need to meet ‘common standards’ which enable patient data sharing across GP practices and trusts, under new legislation.
The Data Use and Access Bill, introduced last week in the House of Lords, aims to ‘harness’ data to boost the economy by £10bn and ‘free up’ 140,000 hours of NHS staff time.
It was trailed earlier this month when health secretary Wes Streeting reiterated plans for a ‘single patient record’ which brings data together from across all NHS organisations.
Currently, IT providers across the NHS are not uniform when it comes to ‘information standards’ which enable real-time data sharing across the whole health and care system.
According to the Government, bringing in new health information standards will ensure that patient information ‘can easily be accessed in real time’ across all NHS trusts, GP surgeries and ambulance services, ‘no matter what IT system they are using’.
The legislation will require IT suppliers for the health and care sector to ‘ensure their systems meet common standards to enable data sharing across platforms’.
This means all health and care data will be recorded and managed in the same way, allowing information to flow ‘safely, securely, and seamlessly’, the Government added.
The Government claimed that as well as freeing up NHS staff time, the new legislation could also reduce duplicate lab tests by 8.8% and duplicate diagnostic tests by 10%, saving more than £65m over 10 years.
Mandatory data sharing standards could also reduce medication errors by 6.8 million and prevent 20 deaths per year related to such errors occurring during transfers, discharges and referrals.
A document explaining the new legislation said: ‘Effective information sharing is reliant on the ability of IT systems across health and adult social care to be interchangeable.
‘Information standards can be set that enable this, by allowing for information to be shared easily and in real time between organisations that use different systems.’
The Government sought to reassure the public that ‘vital safeguards’ which track how personal data is used will remain in place, giving ‘peace of mind to patients’.
‘IT systems in the NHS operate to the highest standards of security and all organisations have governance arrangements in place to ensure the safe, legal storage and use of data,’ it added.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said it shouldn’t be the patient’s responsibility ‘to join the dots for their doctor’ and questioned how a GP can diagnose patients without knowing about their recent hospital surgery.
He added: ‘This Bill and our Ten Year Health Plan will ensure important data flows safely and securely through the NHS, freeing up staff time and speeding up patient care.
‘I know people worry about Big Brother, which is why data will only be shared to the most relevant staff and anybody using data must comply with strict security protocols.’
NHS England director of transformation Dr Vin Diwakar said the new bill is a ‘significant step in creating a more responsive and efficient healthcare system’.
He continued: ‘These changes will lay the foundations for patient information to flow safely, securely and seamlessly, which will improve clinical outcomes, make decision-making more informed and speed up the delivery of care.’
Mr Streeting signalled to plans for a single patient record earlier this month at the RCGP’s annual conference, where he also announced that NHS England will take over responsibility for sharing this data where patients have consented for it to be used in studies.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
