Electronic Health Records in England

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is committing £2 billion in funding to implement electronic health records for all hospitals and community practices in England by 2025. This investment follows Oracle founder Larry Ellison's similar initiative in the US. Health Secretary Sajid Javid is leading this effort, which also includes plans to expand the tech workforce to meet future healthcare demands. The goal is to create a comprehensive digital health and care record for all patients by 2024, improving access to medical data and enhancing healthcare coordination.

Currently, 86 percent of NHS trusts have implemented electronic patient records, with the government aiming to increase this to 90 percent by next year. It remains uncertain whether this funding is additional, as a previous spending review in October allocated £2.1 billion for enhancing IT and digital technology in the NHS

The new digital health strategy involves enhancing the NHS App's functionality, including the capability to register with GP surgeries through the app starting March 2023. It also plans to implement the Federated Data Platform, which has sparked concerns about potential involvement from Palantir, a US tech firm already deeply embedded in the NHS COVID-19 Data Store. While the plan is welcomed for consolidating previous commitments, there are concerns about the capacity of healthcare staff to adopt new systems due to their heavy workloads. This initiative must also navigate the legacy of the failed £10 billion National Programme for IT, a major UK public-sector IT project.

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0519/POST-PN-0519.pdf