SAR pressures on the NHS: Why automation is now critical

The number of Subject Access Requests (SARs) being submitted to the NHS is mushrooming year-on-year, and if trusts are left to manage with their current technology set up, many run the risk of falling behind the one-month deadline to complete each request and falling foul of regulations because they have neither the time, nor capacity to keep up with demand.

With the NHS 10-Year Plan also now published, aimed at modernising the health service in England and ensuring it is fit for purpose, decisions must be made on how to streamline core processes and make the whole experience better for not only people working within the NHS, but crucially, the people using it: the patients.

Regulatory requirements such as the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 are growing in complexity, and healthcare organisations need robust systems in place to protect sensitive data, and help them respond quickly and efficiently to demands.

Case study: Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust

Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeing the number of SARs increase by around 100 a year, and has currently received around 700 requests in so far 2025.

Sarah Briggs, Data Protection Manager at the Trust, explains that the SARs were from mixed sources and varied, including from the patients themselves; a solicitor acting on their behalf; police officers that are carrying out investigations; or councils that might be looking into protection orders. They also come from regulatory bodies looking at the Trust’s fitness to practice within the NHS.

She says the Trust had seen an increase in people exercising other rights as well, such as the right to rectification, having things amended or removed completely, and reporting that their records have been accessed inappropriately.

The matter has been exacerbated by the inclusion of emails and email trails, which increases the number of documents needing attention, she added.

Drowning in administration

Briggs said the sheer number of SARs was beginning to weigh the team down and cause sleepless nights.

“The sheer volume of SARs and the different challenges for different types of requests is our biggest challenge,” she says. “We’re a mental health Trust, so some of the records we have on patients with a long history of mental health issues can mean their records are huge. The problems start with struggling to get the records out of the system due to the size of the file which crashed the systems.”

Briggs says the more requests that came in, the more the team were stretched, and the harder it became to hit deadlines.

“You’re not on top of your targets or your workload, and it is really flattening for people not being able to feel like they were doing a good job. As the requests increased, we were not able to spend the time we wanted and it often felt like we were just firefighting,” Briggs adds.

Finding a better alternative

It was the above challenges, and the need for a new approach to SARs, that spurred the Trust to start looking into alternative technology

Briggs says that when she and her team started using Smartbox.ai technology, the functionality it added helped to reduce stress among her team almost immediately.

“The fact Smartbox.ai could handle emails was a massive thing. As was one of the functions – de-threading – which meant we could get rid of duplicates and identify chains of emails,” she says. “It also meant we didn’t have to import Exchange files into our own Outlook, meaning that multiple people could be working on a SAR at the same time which helps to save time and allows us to swap and change tasks when we need to.”

Briggs says that one example of a SAR she received involved 19,000 emails, but by using Smartbox.ai’s technology to remove duplicates, it reduced the number down to a ‘more manageable’ 1,800 files.

“It made such a difference about my own approach to a task and made you feel better about doing it,” Briggs emphasises. “We can also split documents into manageable chunks with Smartbox, rather than feeling overwhelmed.”

Another feature that was a game-changer – the Dictionary function – allows users to create lists of words or ‘risk indicators’ that need to be removed/redacted and implement them immediately.

“With mental health records there is a lot of content in there and sensitive words such as suicide, assault, termination,” explains Briggs. “This tool will help us ensure we don’t miss anything that could cause somebody harm and distress.”

She added that the option to use different colour redaction highlighters was a useful function which made it easier to explain away the information underneath should questions arise.

Communication is key

Another key positive about working with Smartbox.ai is its willingness to listen to feedback and act on it, Briggs claims.

For example, when her Trust first started using the technology, redactions were in black, but Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust always redacts information in white, which could have been a serious issue. But after a consultation with Smartbox.ai, the Trust’s needs were taken into account, and that functionality was built into their version of the software.

Simply by listening to its customer needs and acting on it, Smartbox.ai made a big impact, Briggs concludes, leaving her happy to recommend the technology to other Trusts.

“If you are working with technology like Smartbox.ai that is more intuitive and is keeping up with and adapting to how you need to work, it is easier for us to bring on new staff to train and it is easier for them to learn. I would say it is worth other Trusts, particularly Mental Health Trusts, looking into Smartbox.ai.”

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If you need help streamlining your SAR processes and are drowning in administrative paperwork, get in touch with Smartbox.ai today and see how we can help you.