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The UK government is introducing new laws to create a single patient record accessible by NHS trusts, ambulance services and GP surgeries. The creation of the “patient passport” is a significant pillar of Labour’s plans to transform the NHS from analogue to digital. The idea is to aggregate and simplify the current system, which forces patients and providers to wrangle with multiple electronic records when providing care. Patient privacy campaign groups have responded with warnings about the potential for abuse and error in the NHS handling a vast database of (valuable) personal data. Care minister Stephen Kinnock has promised a “cast-iron guarantee” over data security. Earlier this year, leading cybersecurity experts warned about the NHS’s vulnerability to further cyber attacks following a major ransomware attack by a Russian-based group which affected several London hospitals.
