The government has pledged that its new Health Bill will deliver ‘safer, quicker and more accurate healthcare’.
A press release from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England explains that the NHS Modernisation Bill will introduce two major changes to join up fragmented health information and cut bureaucracy.
The first aim will be achieved by the introduction of a single patient record while the second will be accomplished by the abolition of NHS England.
Introducing a single patient record will mean NHS staff can access a patient’s full medical history in real time and that patients will not be required to continually repeat their story. Meanwhile, the government says that scrapping NHS England will put power and resources into the hands of frontline NHS organisations.
The latest step in the government’s modernisation agenda, the new Health Bill was introduced on 14th May 2026.
Health Bill introduces single patient record
The single patient record will require all NHS providers, including hospitals and GPs, to share data so that healthcare professionals can securely view a patient’s full medical history no matter where they are treated.
It is hoped that patients will benefit from safer, more coordinated care with clinicians possessing the full picture where needed, while joining up community services and supporting better care closer to home.
The Health Bill will also provide patients with more control over their care and transparency, with clear safeguards, audit trails and choice over how their data is used.
For healthcare professionals, the Bill will mean they are no longer expected to work with missing information or check in multiple places for the same data. Overall, the government says a single patient record will result in greater efficiency and fewer errors across the NHS.
Abolishing NHS England will ‘simplify’ and streamline the NHS
The Health Bill will also simplify the NHS by formally transferring NHS England’s functions into the Department of Health and Social Care and out to the wider system.
This move is designed to ensure that the NHS is there for patients when they need it, is a better place for staff to work and delivers better value for taxpayers.
The government says that local leaders have previously complained about having two centres of bureaucracy which can create “confusion and inertia” while also diluting democratic accountability for the NHS.
The intention behind abolishing NHS England is to reduce duplication and free up resources which can then be reinvested in frontline care, with less time spent on administrative tasks and more time focused on delivering effective care.
The government says this move will be accompanied by measures to streamline and strengthen the patient safety landscape, embed patient voices in local and national decision-making and empower integrated care boards (ICBs) and Foundation Trusts to deliver for their patients.
In their press release, the government says changes brought forward by their Health Bill “put patients back at the heart of our health system, with clarified roles for local leaders and decision making devolved to a local level, so those who truly understand the needs of their communities are trusted to shape and integrate services more effectively.”
Response to the new Health Bill
Health Minister Karin Smyth says the government’s new Health Bill will be a “game changer” that will allow healthcare professionals to “deliver better care faster and more conveniently. And even saving lives.”
Indeed, Dr Maurice Cohen, a consultant geriatrician at North Middlesex Hospital and Clinical Director at the London Frailty Network, said the introduction of a single patient record was equivalent to the NHS “wrapping ourselves around the patient rather than the patient wrapping themselves around us.”
While the Health Bill will enable information related to a patient’s health and care to be processed for the purposes of establishing and operating the single patient record, the government says it will have “robust protections” against data security risks, with different levels of access to reflect different needs and clear audit trails built in, and that they will work with the public and healthcare professionals in its design.
The National Chief Clinical Information Officer at NHS England, Dr Alec Price-Forbes, agrees that the single patient record will “revolutionise patient care,” and adds:
“For too long, patient information has been held in silos, leading to patients having to repeat their story multiple times in different care settings, creating the potential for duplication or gaps in understanding by those treating them – and understandable frustrations and a poor experience for patients.”
Five key tests for the Health Bill
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, Sarah Woolnough, has set out five key tests for the Health Bill, which are:
- Can it make a difference to patient care? – Woolnough says the move “to accelerate the sharing of data across health and social care could make a big difference to how people experience services, and for research to improve health and care.” Will it in practice?
- Will it reduce bureaucracy? – Woolnough says that scrapping NHS England and abolishing a number of other arm’s-length bodies “could help simplify the landscape” but questions claims that 50% of staff nationally will be cut and £1 billion saved by the end of this parliament. She comments: “Tackling this is as much about behaviours, culture and a genuinely different kind of leadership.”
- Will it boost patient voice? – While handing power to patients is a central ambition of the Bill, Woolnough says the test will be “whether the newly created Patient Experience Directorate, and reimagined local patient voice network, can do the job of acting on what they hear, and make space for unsolicited feedback too.”
- Will it improve patient safety? – Woolnough warns that “improving patient safety is at least as much about supporting the right kind of leaders and a culture where staff feel it is safe to speak up, and quality is prized above other things, as getting the right organisational design.”
- Will it stabilise (rather than destabilise) the NHS? – Woolnough says the Bill will create “a more varied health system, with integrated care organisations, advanced foundation trusts and a stronger role for mayors.” However, she questions whether this will “improve democratic accountability by making the system more responsive to local needs, and give greater financial control to high performing organisations?”
Finally, Woolnough reflects on what’s missing from the Health Bill, highlighting the lack of focus on “public health or reforming social care.”
She argues that “if the government is serious about its prevention revolution, it could take bolder legislative action to tackle alcohol misuse, address obesity, secure cleaner air,” and added:
“And the lack of meaningful mentions of adult social care in the government’s legislative agenda is an all-too-familiar reminder of where it is its in the government’s overall plans. There is still a real risk that, even if the Casey Commission delivers robust proposals, they cannot be delivered until the 2030s. That is too long for the people who rely on care and support to wait.”
Could new legislation pit the CQC against itself?
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has broadly welcomed the Health Bill but has also raised some concerns about operational conflicts of interest.
The Health Bill extends the CQC’s enforcement powers, pushing the time limit for the regulator to initiate legal proceedings against failing care providers from 3 years to 5, a move which has been strongly supported by the CQC, who say it will help them to better protect patients and provide families with justice.
However, the Bill will also merge the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) into the CQC. The care watchdog says this move can help to unite patient safety measures but has also raised concerns that absorbing the confidential, “no-blame” safety body into its functions could create conflicts of interest and legal complications.
In fact, the regulator has explicitly cautioned the Commons Health and Social Care Committee that a merger with HSSIB could pit the CQC’s regulatory enforcement arm against its own investigatory arm in legal proceedings.
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