The NHS is still spending hundreds of millions of pounds a year storing patient records on paper, according to a recent BMJ report that highlights how slow progress on digitisation continues to weigh on the health service. The findings come as health leaders face mounting pressure to modernise hospital systems, reduce waste and improve the flow of information across care settings.
The BMJ reported that four fifths of NHS trusts are still using pen and paper for record keeping, 25 years after the first digitisation push began. In a separate article, it also said the NHS spends £240m a year storing patient records, underlining the scale of the problem and the ongoing costs of outdated systems.
Why the digital backlog matters for care
Paper records can slow down access to information, make coordination between teams harder and create extra administrative work for staff already under pressure. In a health system where timely decisions matter, the persistence of paper-based processes points to a gap between digital ambition and day-to-day reality.
The issue is also linked to wider concerns about capacity and service performance. BMJ coverage over recent months has repeatedly pointed to staffing strain, delayed discharges and operational inefficiencies across the NHS, suggesting that record-keeping remains part of a broader challenge rather than an isolated one.
Pressure on leaders to speed up reform
Digital transformation has been one of the NHS’s most persistent policy goals, but the latest reporting suggests the pace of change remains uneven across trusts. The continued use of paper files raises questions about how quickly institutions can move to fully integrated systems that support safer and more efficient care.
For patients, the impact may be less visible than a headline policy announcement, but the consequences can still be felt in delays, repeated data entry and fragmented records. For staff, the cost is operational as well as financial, with resources tied up in storing, moving and managing documents that digital systems could eventually replace.
The latest BMJ reporting does not present the digitisation failure as a sudden crisis, but rather as a long-running problem that has survived repeated reform efforts. That makes it especially significant: the NHS is still paying for an older way of working while trying to build the infrastructure of a more connected service.
Photo source: AI-generated or edited image
