The number of patients using the NHS App has more than doubled since Chief Nurse Ruth May announced the ‘NHS App Ambassadors’ scheme in early September, according to NHS Digital.
Since September, the NHS has been undertaking a campaign focused on its own staff encouraging them to download the app themselves. At the beginning of September there were 91,000 registered users. This has now risen to over 200,000. More people than ever before booked NHS appointments digitally choosing to use this route rather than calling their local surgery. In September there were 1.4 million GP online service appointment transactions.
The NHS App provides a simple and secure way for people to access a range of NHS services on their smartphone or tablet. Available to download on all IOS and Android devices, it allows patients to manage repeat prescriptions, book appointments at a GP surgery, view their GP medical records, and much more.
645 App Ambassadors - frontline NHS staff who signed up to the scheme - have been working in their organisations and within their professional groups to encourage colleagues to use the app.
Tara Donnelly, Chief Digital Officer at NHSX, says: “NHS staff play an important role in telling people about the NHS App and supporting them to use it. As members of NHS staff, we all use the NHS too and so we’ve been talking to staff about how the NHS App can really benefit them, especially given the busy lives so many lead.
"A growing range of digital tools are available alongside the NHS App, using the infrastructure we developed in building the app, giving people an important choice in how they access NHS services online. Our intention is to encourage NHS staff to help people to understand the choices available. This will mean that some people choose to use another tool instead of, or alongside, the NHS App. This might be an app they have used previously on a longstanding basis or one that provides an additional service that better meets their particular needs.
