Suppliers to help design Streeting’s ‘single patient record’

It has launched a “pre-market engagement” on proposals for the SPR, which is intended to connect all individuals’ NHS and social care data.

Documents (see attached) reveal NHS England envisages the new system should “make the most of the existing NHS technology estate”, such as electronic patient records, but also asks suppliers which current technology will be “no longer required” when the SPR is introduced.

It appears the SPR will effectively replace existing “summary care records”, which collate limited information from across various services, but will include significant extra functions.

It says summary care records are “not comprehensive” as they are “read only” and “present data from care settings in tandem rather than creating a single version of the truth”.

The SPR will also crucially go further by enabling staff and patients to write to the single shared record, rather than only reading from it.

According to NHSE it will enable services to “better coordinate care between providers, make discharge summaries electronic, build neighbourhood health systems and run national vaccination and other direct care programmes”.

In addition, it will enable the secure availability of data for third-party applications such as research and clinical trials.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting announced plans for an SPR in October, and it is expected to be central to the 10-Year Plan for Health.

Suppliers have been asked for suggestions, including how they would design infrastructure for an SPR, during May. NHSE will hold an event for them on 9 May, and may hold follow-up discussions.

The pre-market engagement could lead to a future government contract to run parts or all of the SPR.

As well as how they would provide “core functionality”, suppliers have been asked how they would achieve “broader aims” of the SPR, such as the ability to “orchestrate care plans in practice and automatically prompt actions by care professionals and individuals based on real time data on that patient”.

Several future use cases are also set out, including ability to connect the SPR with the NHS app prompt patients to seek a checkup if genetic risks are detected in their family medical history.

NHSE said: “The SPR will transform the patient data ecosystem, integrating data across all care settings to improve access to patient information across the NHS.”