Rollout from 2027 could improve care, speed up treatment, and potentially save lives.
Last week, the King’s Speech set out Government plans for legislation over the current parliamentary session, including the creation of a new Single Patient Record for NHS patients.
This will mean NHS staff can see a patient’s full medical history and patients won’t have to repeat their story unnecessarily.
“The Single Patient Record has the potential to stop women and birthing people who have experienced pregnancy and baby loss from having to repeat their experience time and again to healthcare professionals. Something bereaved parents often tell us causes them additional distress.
“However, it is important that bereaved parents are consulted in the roll out of the Single Patient Record and that inclusion of loss is done sensitively. Healthcare professionals in all parts of the NHS also need the training, support and resources to effectively care for bereaved parents.
- Clea Harmer, Sands’ Chief Executive
How will the Single Patient Record work?
Currently women are required to go through their entire medical history in a first appointment with a midwife, which is reliant on memory and can create gaps in information as they move through their pregnancy.
This proposal will allow health services to share patient data, for example between GPs and hospitals, reducing the need for patients to have to repeat medical histories.
The proposal could also help the NHS meet one of the standards of the National Bereavement Care Pathway for Pregnancy and Baby Loss (the NBCP) - that “a system is in place to clearly signal to all health care professionals and staff that a parent has experienced a bereavement”.
The NBCP seeks to improve the quality and consistency of bereavement care received by parents after pregnancy or baby loss, all hospitals and commissioners are expected to implement the pathways for stillbirth and neonatal death.
Rollout of the Single Patient Record could begin from 2027, with maternity services among the first areas to benefit.
Find out more on the NHS England website
Sands here to support
Sands is here for everyone touched by pregnancy or baby loss. The charity offers bereavement support in many ways, because everyone grieves differently and this can change over time.
Find out more about all the ways the charity offers bereavement support.