Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made towards his target of making the NHS paperless by 2018.

Good progress on personalised health and care 2020 has been made towards a paperless National Health Service. Over the past four years, digital technologies have delivered tens of millions of pounds of efficiencies (cost and time savings) to the system, reduced running costs and supported digital transformation across the system. For example, a new e-Referral service enabling doctors and patients to book appointments has realised savings of £10 million in the first year of operation.

Free wi-fi in general practitioner (GP) surgeries has been rolled out across approximately 1,000 surgeries in 29 clinical commissioning group areas. By the end of March 2015, online booking of appointments, ordering of repeat prescriptions and access to summary information in patients’ records was available in over 95% of GP practices. Over 55.1 million people now have a Summary Care Record – representing 96% of the population.

At the end of December 2016, 9.2 million people were registered for appointments booking online and 9 million people registered online for repeat prescriptions. Since March 2016, 98% of GP practices have been able to offer access to detailed coded information in patients’ records (consultations, test results, problems and diagnoses).

A new NHS apps library is being developed to support people to better manage their own health and from September this year a new online service, NHS.UK, will provide a platform from which patients can interact with the NHS online in one place.

Finally, 12 acute trusts have embarked on a process to become Global Digital Exemplars – internationally recognised care providers delivering exceptional care, through the world-class use of digital technology and information flows, both within and beyond their organisational boundary.