The NHS Digital and NHS England have developed a new app, which will help patients to easily access health services.
Image: The NHS app will provide patients with safe and secure access to their GP record. Photo: courtesy of Crown copyright.
The new NHS app has been designed to provide patients with safe and secure access to their GP record.
The UK Health and Social Care secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “The NHS app is a world-first which will put patients firmly in the driving seat and revolutionise the way we access health services.
“As the NHS turns 70 and we draw up a long-term plan for the NHS on the back of our £394 million a week funding boost, it’s time to catch up and unleash the power of technology to transform everyday life for patients.”
The new app can be used for making GP appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions, managing long-term conditions and accessing 111 online for urgent medical queries.
From December this year, the free app will be available to all people across the England.
With the click of a button, the patients can secure a GP appointment, helping to avoid joining a queue of callers attempting to ring the local surgery at the same time.
Patients can also use the app to state their preferences related to data-sharing, organ donation and end-of-life care.
Via App Store or Google Play, the users can download the new app and sign up for an NHS account.
NHS England operations and information national director Matthew Swindells said: “In the NHS’s 70th year, the new app will take the NHS to a world-leading position by empowering all our patients using digital technology to take charge of their own healthcare and contact the NHS in a way that suits them.
“The new app will put the NHS into the pocket of everyone in England but it is just one step on the journey. We are also developing an NHS Apps Library and putting free NHS wifi in GP surgeries and hospitals.”