GP practices could be funded to buy their own IT systems through the per patient capitation payment in 2018 instead of having to choose from an approved list of suppliers, as they do now.

The proposal has come about through an IT report suggesting that NHS England and the Department of Health (DH) should evaluate whether practices should be given money to purchase their own system, although they would, of course, have to ensure that any system met the minimum standards for record sharing and security.

The report, which is part of the NHS’s vision for a ‘21st Century IT system’, states that the current contract for central purchasing of GP systems and associated technology ends in April 2018 and that NHS England and the DH will ‘consider carefully’ whether it is appropriate that it continues as a national contract or whether funding for GP systems should be incorporated into the capitation payments made to primary care providers, who will then be free to purchase systems from any supplier, subject to meeting national data and technology standards.

Other suggestions included in the report include plans to give patients the opportunity to access their medical records through NHS Choices, adding comments to their GP medical records and expanding ‘care.data’ by 2018.

Under the 2015/16 General Medical Services (GMS) contract, GP practices are required to provide online access to all coded information in the patient record by 2016 for patients who request it and access to summary information from April 2015.

However, this report goes further and sets out how patients will have access to all their health records through NHS Choices. It is part of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s pledge for a ‘paperless NHS’ by 2016 and explains how all NHS providers will have to develop up-to-date electronic records of patient care by 2018.