Allowing health professionals to ask patients about their sexual orientation has triggered strong opposing views in the medical community.
A GP, speaking to The BMJ, feared it will not help avoid discrimination and raise various issues of intrusion or invasion of privacy while other medics say it may lead to an improved and fairer service.
It has been a hot topic among medical experts since NHS England guidelines, released in late 2017, recommended that patients over the age of 16 visiting their local GP or hospital may be asked to confirm whether they are straight, gay, bisexual or other from 2019.
General practitioner Michael Dixon, taking part in The BMJ debate, said there are health benefits from knowing a patient's sexuality but the approach of asking "all" patients is wrong.
Saying it should be up to the individual judgement of GPs as to when it is appropriate or useful to ask such questions about patient sexual orientation, he said: "Apparently this is all to stop discrimination under the Equality Act, but surely the best way to avoid discrimination is by not knowing people's sexuality in the first place."
Sexual orientation monitoring ... may lead to a better service for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community
He added: "In good medical practice, the patient's own needs, wishes, choices, beliefs, culture, and perspective should come first - not the rules or diktats of any higher body."
The health service has said the move was to keep in line with equality legislation to ensure those who do not identify as heterosexual are treated fairly.
Individual NHS trusts will decide whether to opt out of the move, and patients will not be forced to answer.
Richard Ma, a GP and research fellow from Imperial College London, believes it is a welcome step for NHS England to include sexual orientation monitoring in health and social care systems and it may lead to a better service for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
He said: "Some doctors and patients have expressed concerns about this policy, citing reasons such as intrusion or invasion of privacy, fear of causing offence, doubts about relevance, data security.
"Whilst I understand these concerns, they result in inertia; and failure to act undermines hard fought rights of LGBT patients to better healthcare."
Tamas Bereczky, of the European AIDS Treatment Group, said "visibility and honest discussion can also eventually reduce stigma".