London, 3 July 2025 - GS1 UK has welcomed the NHS 10-Year Plan and called on the government to accelerate digital transformation to achieve its ambitions.
Embedding trusted data standards across health and care will be critical to delivering safer, smarter and more connected services for patients and clinicians.
We urge the government to prioritise three aims:
1) Safer care in the community
As care moves closer to home, continuity is critical to maintaining safety. GS1 standards ensure all caregivers have the right patient information at the right time. This prevents unwarranted delays, supports timely interventions and strengthens clinical confidence across hospitals, health centres, home visits and digital platforms.
2) Smarter resource management to support timely care
GS1 standards give NHS teams full visibility of stock, equipment and patient flow. This enables better planning, more productive use of resources and frees up staff to focus on patient care. By reducing waste and inefficiency, the NHS can deliver the right care at the right moment without unnecessary interruptions.
3) A more connected healthcare system for patients and clinicians
Embedding GS1 standards across the NHS ensures accurate information flows seamlessly between healthcare systems, services and settings. This joined up approach empowers patients to take ownership of their care through digital tools such as the NHS app and enables clinicians to deliver the right treatment in the right place, easing pressure on hospitals.
Together, these priorities will support the NHS’s long-term vision, embedding trusted data at the heart of digital transformation, powering safer, more effective and innovative care for the next decade and beyond.
George Lawton, head of healthcare, GS1 UK, said: "Data standards are the foundation of a safer and more efficient digital health service. They ensure the right patient receives the right product in the right place, every time. To successfully shift from analogue to digital, national adoption of GS1 standards and Scan4Safety principles must be a top priority. Embedding these standards across all new and existing systems is essential to delivering the NHS 10-Year Plan and improving care at scale."
With over half of NHS trusts in England already using GS1 standards to support inventory management and patient safety, the case for national rollout is clear.
-ENDS-
Notes to editors
For further information or requests for interviews, contact Alex Cox: 07464 946 769; alexander.cox@gs1uk.org.
To find out more about the role of GS1 standards in healthcare, visit: https://www.gs1uk.org/industries/healthcare
About Scan4Safety
The six demonstrator sites selected by the Department of Health and Social Care to demonstrate the benefits of GS1 and Peppol standards were Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.
Following the success of the programme in England, Scan4Safety has since been adopted by several NHS trusts in England. National Scan4Safety programmes have now been established in Scotland and Wales with Northern Ireland looking to implement point of care scanning via its transformational Encompass programme. Similar initiatives have also been developed in other countries including Norway, Japan and Ireland, among others.
About GS1 UK
Whether online, in store or in a hospital, the common language of GS1 global standards is helping our community of more than 60,000 organisations across the UK to uniquely identify, describe and track anything, creating greater trust in data for everyone.
From product barcodes to patient wristbands, GS1 standards have been transforming the way we work and live for 50 years. GS1 UK is one of 120 neutral and independent GS1 organisations operating worldwide.