The NHS is still relying heavily on paper records, with The BMJ reporting that four fifths of NHS trusts continue to use pen and paper for record keeping, 25 years after the first digitisation push. The finding comes amid renewed scrutiny of the pace and cost of digital transformation across England’s health service.
According to the report, the persistence of paper is not just an operational inconvenience. It also carries a financial burden, with NHS spending on storing patient records estimated at £240m a year. That figure has been cited as a marker of how much legacy workflows continue to shape care delivery long after digital systems were introduced.
Why the paper problem still matters
The BMJ’s reporting suggests that the challenge is not simply about replacing folders with screens. It points to a broader systems issue in which partial digitisation, uneven implementation and continuing reliance on old processes can slow clinical workflows and add costs. For staff, that can mean more time spent handling information manually; for patients, it can mean a health service that remains harder to streamline.
The article sits within a broader conversation about NHS reform and data use, but the core message is straightforward: despite decades of policy pressure, paper remains deeply embedded in parts of the service. That makes the latest figures significant for anyone tracking operational resilience, service efficiency and the practical limits of health-tech rollout in the UK.
A familiar problem with fresh urgency
The BMJ report lands at a time when digital health is central to NHS planning, yet the latest numbers underline how difficult it can be to turn strategy into day-to-day change. If trusts are still storing vast volumes of records and relying on manual processes, the benefits of modernisation are likely being delayed by infrastructure, workflow and implementation gaps rather than a lack of ambition alone.
For policymakers, the message is clear: digitisation is not complete until it reaches front-line practice in a consistent way. For patients and clinicians, the question is whether the health service can now move beyond repeated digital promises and deliver a system that is genuinely faster, safer and less dependent on paper.
Read more in The BMJ’s news coverage here.
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