A £47.66 million contract awarded to CGI's UK arm to develop core technology for the NHS Single Patient Record programme has brought renewed attention to whether community pharmacists will have access to the patient information needed to support their expanding clinical role.
CGI IT UK has been appointed as an interim technology partner by NHS England under its Transforming and Connecting Care programme. The contract, which began on 2 November 2026, runs for a year with an option for a further extension.
The work includes developing the core operational platform for the Single Patient Record (SPR), including a patient-level datastore, data ingestion pipelines and user-facing application programming interfaces (APIs). CGI will also support authorisation and audit functions and integrate the platform with key systems, including the National Care Records Service (NCRS).
The contract also covers the development of Clinician360, designed to give clinicians a consolidated view of patient information for specific care pathways, and initial work on Patient360, which will support patient access through services aligned with the NHS App.
The SPR is intended to bring information held across different health and care systems into a more connected record, reducing the need for patients to repeat their medical histories when moving between services.
However, CGI is not the sole supplier for the national programme. The Government has confirmed that the SPR will be delivered through multiple companies, with further contracts expected over the next two years.
What does the Single Patient Record mean for community pharmacy?
The programme could have significant implications for community pharmacy as pharmacists take on more responsibility for clinical services and independent prescribing.
Access to relevant medical histories, current medicines, allergies and previous diagnoses can help pharmacists make informed decisions, identify potential risks and determine when a patient needs referral to another healthcare professional.
This is particularly relevant to Pharmacy First, which enables community pharmacists in England to assess and treat patients for specified conditions, and to the expansion of independent prescribing.
Community Pharmacy England has previously called for better access to patient information and improvements to interoperability between pharmacy systems and other NHS records. In its response to the Government's 10-Year Health Plan consultation, it argued that pharmacy professionals should be able to access relevant patient information wherever they are providing care.
The General Pharmaceutical Council has also supported full read-and-write access to patients' clinical records for pharmacy services, arguing that it would help pharmacists make better-informed decisions and work more effectively with hospitals and general practice.
The Royal College of Pharmacy has similarly called for pharmacists to receive full access to the proposed Single Patient Record from the outset.
But the latest contract announcement does not establish what level of access community pharmacists will receive. The Government's published plans describe a tiered, role-based system, under which healthcare professionals will be able to see information relevant to their responsibilities. This does not amount to a commitment to give every professional full access to every part of a patient's record.
Whether community pharmacists will be able to read relevant clinical information, add consultation outcomes and update records directly remains an important question for the programme.
When will clinicians and patients be able to access the record?
NHS England aims to improve clinicians' access to medical histories for at least 80 per cent of patients by March 2027. This milestone is expected to be achieved through connecting existing shared care records, rather than waiting for the complete rollout of the new national platform.
The longer-term ambition is for patients to access a core set of their health information through the NHS App from 2028. The Government says the record could eventually bring together clinical, genomic, lifestyle and social information to support more personalised and preventative care.
The first priority pathways for development are maternity and frailty, with further areas, including cancer and mental health, expected to be added over time.
The NHS App is described as a key dependency for the programme, particularly for patient-facing access. The Government has also said patients should ultimately be able to read, write, share and audit their records.
The Royal College of Physicians has welcomed the potential for a more connected record to improve coordination between healthcare settings, while stressing the importance of ensuring that the system works for patients and professionals and maintains trust in how personal health information is accessed.
For community pharmacy, the success of the programme will depend not only on whether records are connected nationally but also on whether pharmacists can access and contribute relevant information through the systems they already use.
As clinical services and prescribing responsibilities expand, the ability to see a patient's wider medical history and communicate decisions to other healthcare professionals will become increasingly important. The question now is whether the Single Patient Record will give community pharmacy a meaningful role in that connected system.
