Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings by The Health Foundation in its analysis, Electronic patient record systems in England: what do NHS staff think?, published on 24 March, that less than 50 per cent of NHS staff who participated in the survey had received training on how to use the electronic patient record system for their role, and less than 28 per cent had received training on how to fix or troubleshoot problems.

To help ensure every National Health Service hospital in England can benefit from digital transformation, the Government has invested £1.9 billion in either new or existing electronic patient record (EPR) systems. This has resulted in almost all trusts now having an EPR in place, or in delivery. Evidence from secondary care shows that EPRs are contributing to a 4.5% reduction in length of stay and a 13% lower cost in admitted patient spells.

Whilst this represents significant progress, we are continuing to fully realise the benefits of EPRs by building skills and changing management capacity. This includes sharing best practice, improving usability, training users more effectively, and ensuring systems are tailored to local context rather than adopting a one size fits all approach.