We've had a real challenge in making sure that, as we've normalised the way in which we use information in our everyday lives, the health service catches up with that, in the way that we move some of the industrial-scale records that we create, with all of the different patient episodes that the health service provides—over 18 million patient interactions for a country of just over 3 million in one year. Our challenge is to make sure that that is available to people who require that information in front of them when they're actually providing care with and for that person.

We've made lots of progress in the last 10 years in doing that, but our challenge is that there is still much more to be done. That's why the announcements I've made on digital infrastructure and connectivity in the service matter so much, and it's why actually having a new fit-for-purpose system in primary care matters as well—to make sure that information is properly available to whoever needs it and, more than that, in the contract reform programme we have, to make sure we have a version of the patient record available to other healthcare professionals that we are directing and encouraging people to use, whether that's in ophthalmology on a high street in an optician or, indeed, in a pharmacy or other settings.