NHS data sharing could cut 20,000 A&E visits a year and save £20m annually, the government has claimed.
Ministers say the NHS modernisation bill would require GPs and hospitals in England to securely share patient information.
The bill, which is due to receive its second reading on Monday, also sets out plans to abolish NHS England and transfer its functions to the Department of Health and Social Care.
James Murray, the new health secretary, who took the post after Wes Streeting resigned last month, said the new system must be “done in a way that people can have absolute trust in”.
“When people hear data, they think safety, they think data security. So when we’re building the system over the next couple of years, it will be crucial to have strict legal safeguards in place.
“We’ll make sure that only specified people can access the data, and there will be an audit trail of exactly who has accessed the data.
“There will be strong cybersecurity protections for it as well, and we will protect this data, like we do all of our health data today.”
The measures include a single patient record for everyone receiving health and social care in England.
A single patient record is intended to bring key information about a person’s care into one place, so clinicians can see medical history, medications and previous treatment without patients repeatedly giving the same details.
The government says combining single patient records with virtual care could reduce A&E attendances for frail patients by about 10,000 a year.
It claims a further 10,000 visits could be avoided through fewer misdiagnoses, saving doctors about 500,000 hours annually.
The Department of Health and Social Care also predicts 6,000 fewer hospital admissions a year, based on avoided A&E attendances, better heart failure management and improved mental health care.
Heart failure is a long-term condition in which the heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it should.
The DHSC says the £20m annual savings would come from reducing medication errors, adverse drug reactions and duplicate prescribing.
Medication errors can include giving a patient the wrong drug, dose or combination of medicines. Adverse drug reactions are harmful or unintended responses to medication.
Maternity and frailty care are expected to be among the first areas to benefit from 2027.
Under the plans, NHS providers, including hospitals and GPs, would share data so medical professionals can see a patient’s medical history more easily.
The government says the change would help join up community services and support people to manage long-term conditions.
Social care records and records from private healthcare providers working on behalf of the NHS would also be included.
Patients would be given more control over their care, with safeguards, audit trails and choices over how their data is used, according to the government.
At present, GPs are the data controllers for their patients’ records and can share them with third parties for research purposes.
The DHSC is likely to become a data controller for GP records when they are shared into the new system.
The British Medical Association has called for doctors to remain in control of GP data rather than the DHSC.
Its GP committee has warned that taking control of data away from GPs could damage trust and risk confidentiality.
The government says the system would be designed with security and privacy built in, allowing people to see who has accessed a single patient record.
Existing clinical protocols would govern what information is shared into the record.
The bill would abolish NHS England, transfer its functions to the DHSC and cut layers of bureaucracy, according to the government.
It would also introduce reforms linked to the government’s 10-year health plan, including measures relating to the implementation of the Dash review in relation to the Health Services Safety Investigations Body and Healthwatch.
The legislation is also expected to support more local decision-making through integrated care boards and provider organisations.
NHS Online, a virtual hospital model due to launch in 2027 to provide planned specialist care through the NHS app, aims to provide the equivalent of up to 8.5m appointments and assessments in its first three years.
