NHS App to get AI feature to guide questions during GP consultations

The NHS App will get an AI feature that will allow patients to discuss their health issues and help guide their GP consultations.

Patients will be able to access more information about their healthcare including choosing where they are treated, health secretary Wes Streeting announced today.

The upgraded version of the NHS App will help tackle health inequalities, Mr Streeting said.

Two new features for the NHS App are being planned:

The AI-enabled My Companion tool will give patients ‘direct access to trusted health information’ that they can use to better understand their health but also to help guide questions during consultations.

It will help patients articulate their health needs and preferences confidently whether that is about a health condition or a procedure.

The feature will also help patients to ask questions, including any they may have forgotten about or felt too embarrassed to raise at an in-person appointment, the health secretary said.

In addition, My Choices will help people find healthcare including their local pharmacy but also the ‘best rated’ surgeons.

Data on providers across the country will be available including on waiting times, patient outcomes, and satisfaction scores to help people choose where to be treated, Mr Streeting added. Some may just want their nearest provider which will be the default, he said.

This will better meet the distinct needs of different groups including women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds or people who live in more rural communities.

The improved NHS App will ‘democratise’ care, so that everyone has information about their conditions or procedures they need, Mr Streeting said.

It is part of a package of measures that will be set out under the 10-Year Health Plan to tackle ‘stark’ health inequalities across the country.

Other proposals include a review of the Carr-Hill formula for GP funding, so that ‘working-class areas’ receive their ‘fair share of resources’.

There will also be funding to support those from traditionally working-class communities, unpaid carers and over-50s onto the NHS career ladder.

A new £5 million pilot will recruit an initial 1,000 people from groups or areas worst hit by unemployment.

The Government had already announced that patients would be able to register for clinical trials via the NHS App.

The app was also recently expanded to send out millions more appointment letters, screening invitations and test results.

Speaking today at an event in Blackpool, Mr Streeting said under the current system, wealthier patients often have more information about the country’s hospitals, and access to better care.

‘The NHS feels increasingly slow and outdated to the generation that organises their lives at the touch of a button.

‘If you get annoyed at Deliveroo not getting your dinner to you in less than an hour, how will you feel being told to wait a year for a knee operation? A failure to modernise risks this generation walking away from the NHS, first for their healthcare, and then with their taxes.’

He added that people won’t accept paying higher and higher taxes to fund a health service that no longer meets their needs.

‘And the lack of control people feel over their own lives is made worse by an analogue, computer says no, NHS. We can only close this inequality and shut down this risk to the NHS’s future, through a revolution in patient power.’    

Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS national clinical transformation director, said: ‘The shift from analogue to digital set out in the 10 Year Health Plan will transform the services we offer through the NHS App, making it the single most important tool patients use to get health information and control their care.’

He added that the changes would be codesigned with patients and carers ‘to ensure that the App can be accessed by everyone’.