One of the big-ticket items announced alongside the 2026 King’s Speech was the proposed NHS Modernisation Bill.
The King’s Speech is the formal announcement of the government’s legislative programme, and the NHS Modernisation Bill is one of the bills announced within that.
The speech from King Charles said that the government needs to “push forward with significant reforms to the NHS”.
The Bill is one of the steps towards reform. One of the headline concepts of this bill is the “Single Patient Record” (SPR).
The idea is to create a single, centralised patient record across the NHS, which would join up health and social care data. This would then be accessible via the NHS App.
Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, calls the concept a “gamechanger”, and Mark Hutchinson, Executive VP at Altera Digital Health (UK & EMEA), said that it could "transform both decision-making and patient experience".
In the current set-up, NHS records are highly siloed, meaning that clinicians often cannot see essential information, as it is held elsewhere.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, many organisations, such as The King’s Fund and the Patients Association, have welcomed this proposal.
In a statement, the Chief Executive of the Patients Association, Rachel Power, emphasised that far too many people have had the experience of repeating their history at every appointment, or of vital information simply not being there when it is needed.
Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King's Fund, even said that this change was the part of the Bill that offered the greatest opportunity for improved patient experience in healthcare.
This is about reducing the administrative burden that is eroding the clinical workforce
What are the risks?
Linking primary and secondary care, as well as social care, would remove the core issue behind these patient journey issues.
To enact this, the bill establishes measures like
Not yet a Subscriber?
This is a small extract of the full article which is available ONLY to premium content subscribers. Click below to get premium content on Building Better Healthcare.
Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in here.