The Federated Data Platform and AI Are Quietly Recasting Efficiency across the NHS

Ming Tang, NHSE’s Chief Data Information Officer, and Ayub Bhayat Director Data Services and Deputy Chief Data and Analytics Officer at NHS England, are leading one of the most significant reforms in the NHS’s recent history. Through the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a national framework designed to connect the health service’s fragmented data systems, they are laying the foundations for a more intelligent, transparent, and efficient NHS.

Tang and Bhayat describe their task as making data work for people, not the other way around. The platform will not replace existing systems but link them securely, allowing hospitals, GPs and community services to share information where it is needed. Supported by artificial intelligence, it aims to help the NHS see itself more clearly: from the flow of patients through emergency departments to the management of beds, staff and resources.

Building Connection in a Fragmented System

The NHS has long struggled with data that cannot move. A patient’s record might be scattered across multiple organisations using incompatible software. Clinicians still spend hours searching for results or re-entering information that already exists elsewhere. This fragmentation has slowed decision-making and hindered patient care.

The Federated Data Platform is an attempt to bridge that gap. It allows local systems to remain independent while following shared standards so that data can be combined and viewed securely when required. The result is not a single database but a connected network. A model designed to respect the NHS’s scale and complexity.

Early adopters have reported small but meaningful gains. Bed occupancy, discharge planning and operating theatre use can now be monitored in real time rather than through static daily reports. Teams can anticipate pressure points and allocate staff more effectively. For an overstretched health service, such visibility represents real progress.

A Shift in Approach

The NHS’s digital past is littered with initiatives that overpromised and underdelivered. The National Programme for IT sought to impose uniform systems across the service and collapsed under its own ambition. The FDP approach is different: local, incremental and grounded in data quality rather than grand designs.

Tang and Bhayat’s team has focused first on standardising and cleaning data before introducing more advanced analytics or automation. “You cannot build trust in forecasting or AI if the foundation is unreliable,” one senior official said. This patience marks a departure from the boom-and-bust cycle that has defined earlier digital reforms.

Image: Overview Schema of the Federated Data Platform (FDP)

Securing Public Confidence

Any programme involving NHS data must confront public concern about privacy and consent. Previous efforts to centralise information faltered amid fears about commercial access. The federated model seeks to balance transparency with control. Data stays within local NHS environments and is accessed only for defined purposes such as direct care, planning or approved research. Every use is logged and auditable.

Tang has been clear that this approach is not about creating a new store of data but about improving how existing information is used. The distinction between a centralised database and a federated network may sound technical, but it carries major implications for privacy, governance and public trust.

Beyond Hospital Walls

The implications extend beyond day-to-day management. With consistent, linkable data, the NHS can begin to understand patterns of disease and deprivation, identify patients at risk earlier and measure outcomes more accurately. In research, federated access allows approved studies to draw on real-world evidence at national scale without compromising confidentiality.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to support this shift, analysing data to predict demand, detect deterioration and guide planning. The combination of high-quality data and AI gives the NHS a way to move from reactive care to prevention and foresight.

The Long View

Integrating hundreds of legacy systems and training staff will take time. Yet for the first time in years, there is a sense that the NHS’s data strategy fits its realities rather than fights them. The Federated Data Platform and AI are unlikely to deliver a dramatic transformation overnight. Their impact will be cumulative: quieter, steadier, and built on consistency.

For a service as vast and vital as the NHS, that may be precisely the kind of progress it needs. A reform led not by a single moment of change, but by people such as Ming Tang and Ayub Bhayat patiently teaching the health service to see itself whole.