Millions more patients will receive appointment reminders, screening invitations and test results via the NHS App, avoiding the need for ‘at least 50 million letters’, the Government has said.
In latest expansion of the app, push notifications will remind patients about upcoming appointments and relay important messages, in a bid to reduce the risk of missed appointments.
The Department of Health and Social Care said that currently almost 20 million patients are opted in to receive messages via the app, which is expected to be used to send 270 million messages this year – an increase of 70 million on last financial year, saving ‘an estimated £200m across the system’ over the next three years.
It said that over the next three years, patients in England will receive all appropriate NHS messages through the app first.
Where app messaging is not available, communications will be sent via SMS and then by letter ‘as a last resort’.
The Government added that through ‘various expansions’, users will soon be able to add appointments to the calendar on their phone and ‘request help from their GP surgery’.
The expansions will be driven by an investment of over £50m as part of the Government’s aim for the NHS to shift from analogue to digital.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘People are living increasingly busy lives and want to access information about their health at the touch of a button, rather than having to wait weeks for letters that often arrive too late.
‘The NHS still spends hundreds of millions of pounds on stamps, printing, and envelopes. By modernising the health service, we can free up huge amounts of funding to reinvest in the frontline.’
NHS England clinical transformation director Dr Vin Diwakar said: ‘More than 11 million of us now log into the NHS App every month to manage our healthcare, whether ordering a repeat prescription or seeking advice on a medical condition.
‘We’re supporting the switch from analogue to digital by harnessing the power of digital communication channels so that millions more patients can receive important messages about their health direct to their smartphones – all you need to do is enable notifications in the NHS App to see and open messages.’
Earlier this year, NHS England claimed that GP time equivalent to more than 400,000 hours was saved through the use of the NHS App last year.
It comes after NHS England launched efforts to encourage the use of the app, including a campaign last year focusing on its functionalities such as GP record access and test results, repeat prescriptions and viewing appointments already booked. Library staff across England were also involved to help people access it and increase the use of the app.
Last month, a feature allowing patients to track the status of their prescription on the NHS App went live for nearly 1,500 pharmacies.
