NHS app

The NHS app, which will allow patients to book appointments with their GP, order repeat prescriptions and access their GP record, has been developed by NHS Digital and NHS England.[1] Both Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock (whose family run a software business) have stressed their support for the project. Hancock presented it as the key a radical overhaul of NHS technology.[2] Hunt claimed it would mark 'the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients'.[3]

It can also be used to access NHS 111, set patients' data sharing preferences, record organ donation preferences and end of life care preferences.[4]

Development

Jeremy Hunt laid down “8 challenges” for the development in September 2017:

  • Symptom checking and triage
  • Access to your medical records
  • GP appointment booking
  • Repeat prescription ordering
  • Changing data sharing preferences
  • Changing organ donation preferences
  • Changing end of life care choices
  • Promoting “approved apps” to patients[5]

It is to be piloted in from October 2018 and across England in December 2018.[6] Patients are to be sent a text message from their GP practice inviting them to download the app. It was released for testing in Septemeber 2018 in Liverpool, Staffordshire, Redditch and Bromsgrove, Wyre Forest and South Worcestershire, Wolverhampton, Hastings and Rother, and Bristol, North Somerset and Gloucestershire. Initially it will offer symptom checking and triage; appointment booking; repeat prescription ordering; access to patient records; national data opt-out; and organ donation preference.[7] The launch of the app was accompanied by a decision that the name NHS Choices was to be abandoned, and in future the NHS site was to be called “the NHS website”.[8]

From 2019 it is planned to support GP video consultations and connect to an Apple Watch or FitBit. Later development includes plans to link up with the NHS e-Referral Service to allow patients to book hospital or clinic appointments. EMIS is at present the only system that is fully compatible with the app.[9]

NHS App website[10]

References

  1. ↑ "New NHS app to improve patients access to GP services". OnMedica. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "Matt Hancock's plan for an NHS tech revolution is doomed to fail". Wired. 8 September 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  3. ↑ "NHS app to end '8am scramble for GP appointments' by December". GP Online. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "Hancock to announce £200m for additional GDEs". Digital Health. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "Here's What The New NHS App Will Look Like - And Why It Could Have Been So Much Worse". Gizmodod. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  6. ↑ "Pilot areas announced for NHS app to book appointments". BBC. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  7. ↑ "NHS App to launch to nationwide private beta testers tomorrow". Digital Health. 26 September 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  8. ↑ "Launch of NHS app marks a new era". Computer Weekly. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "GPs to consult patients using new Government NHS app from 2019". Pulse. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  10. ↑ "NHS App". NHS Digital. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
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