The NHS has announced that, from 2014, all NHS Trusts and providers must use patient NHS numbers as the primary identifier.
The move - which seems simple, but could save a huge amount of unnecessary paperwork - means medical records can be more easily tied together because hospitals will be able to keep multiple visits logged under the NHS number, rather than taking a name every time.
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The implications for improved use of IT in the NHS are also encouraging.
NHS England national director for patients and information, Tim Kelsey, described the existing service as one that is "unintelligent about its patients, carers or clients, that does not always know with accuracy who it is treating, cannot guarantee its safety," and said using the NHS number was one of the "urgent steps" needed to "make the data revolution real" within the health service.
Gayna Hart, MD of health systems and services supplier Quicksilva, said:
"This news is one small step for man and one gigantic leap for the NHS. Of course it should be a contractual requirement; in fact it's surprising it isn't already. This move is vital to establishing the NHS number as the 'go to' identifier of all patients who can legitimately receive NHS treatment."
Hart said that not only will use of NHS numbers promote clinical safety, but it will mean the NHS will "finally start to build records that follow through and give a single view of the patient. I can't imagine any business operating successfully without being able to tie costs to its individual customers, nor link all historical activities to a particular customer account.
"The savings in the current time it takes to reconcile multiple records for the same patient alone would be an advantage - just because it's a future advantage shouldn't mean we don't even try."
