Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is supporting a drive to make the NHS paperless by 2018, a practice which would generate billions in savings.

The ability for patients to access their health records by 2015 will be the first step in a series to become paperless.

£4.4 billion in potential savings have been identified by the PwC through technological innovation.

Past attempts to promote savings through efficiencies have been met by obstacles including the failure of the Lorenzo project in digitalising patient records.