Patients in the North West are getting better access to services and are less likely to miss hospital appointments thanks to the successful rollout of the NHS App.

Most acute hospitals in the region (88%) now offer services including booking and managing appointments, through the NHS App, helping them to free up appointment slots for follow up and new patients and save money through reduced appointment letters and text reminders.

Dr Michael Gregory, Regional Medical Director for NHS England in the North West, said: “By connecting hospital patient portals with the NHS App, more patients can now have a single view of their hospital referrals and outpatient appointments, alongside their health records and services such as ordering repeat prescriptions.

“This improves patient experience, giving them greater choice and flexibility over how and when they book appointments and the ability to reschedule them if needed, while also freeing up admin and clinical time so that patients can be seen and treated more quickly.”

The expansion of the NHS App in the North West has exceeded the national target of 85% of acute hospitals allowing patients to view appointment information on the app by the end of March 2025, and supports the shift of NHS services from analogue to digital.

Acute trusts will be required to make at least 70% of planned hospital appointments available to manage via the NHS App by March 2026 and hospitals across the region are continuing to add to the services that their patients can access on the App.

This builds on the GP practice services patients can already access on the NHS App, including booking appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and accessing their GP health record.

Almost four million patients aged 13+ in the North West have already registered for the NHS App (as of March 2025), with around seven million patient log-ins each month and 53,000 appointments being managed on the App .

The key benefits include:

• Improved patient experience – single digital ‘front door’ to the NHS
• Patients have more choice and control as their appointments are made available to view and manage via the NHS App and they are sent reminders and notifications about these, helping prevent appointments from being missed.
• Reduction in the number of letters / SMS sent to patients as printing of paper letters is avoided when information is available to patients digitally.
• Reduction in patient queries to hospital trusts and GP practices, as patients can view and manage their appointments via the NHS App.

At neuroscience specialist hospital The Walton Centre in Liverpool, 89% of patients have opted to be contacted via mobile and digital channels, freeing up call lines for the 11% of patients who prefer to be contacted by phone.

As a result of more patients booking appointments via the App and fewer missed appointments – the percentage of patients not turning up for appointments has fallen from 11% to 6% – the Walton Centre has also been able to free up capacity for 90 patients in follow up appointments and 15 new patients per week, impacting on waiting lists and benefiting 479 new patients seen over a six month period.

Linda, 69, was referred to the Walton Centre for increasing neck pain and has been managing appointments via text.

She said: “The reminders and appointment offers that come through on text are so useful. I doubt I’d forget, but having them get in touch regularly via text to see if anything has change or I need to rearrange definitely takes the pressure off.”

Linda, who also accesses her patient records through the NHS App, added: “The app is incredibly useful. When I want to check to see if blood or scan results have come through, or even remember what results were when I’m speaking to a clinician, the NHS App is reassuring.”

Head of Transformation and Corporate Operations at The Walton Centre, Sam Holman, said: “Introducing text notifications for patients has been a game-changer. Since implementing the system which allows patients to manage their appointments this way, we’ve seen a sharp increase in the rate of hospital appointments attended.

“We hope with further integration with other elements such as the NHS App, this patient-led care can increase and enhance their NHS experience.”

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria has developed its own patient portal, which will eventually link to the NHS App. It gives patients access to outpatient appointment booking and rescheduling across most specialisms at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay. Work is ongoing to roll it out more widely, initially in a small number of specialisms, at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Early findings show patients who are able to book their own appointments this way are far less likely to miss them, with the rate of non-attendance falling from 7.5% of appointments booked by hospitals to 2.25% of appointments booked by the patients themselves.

Asim Patel, chief digital officer for NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said: “This has proved to be really valued by the patients using it, as well as being efficient for the staff teams who would previously have supported booking and rescheduling appointments.

“It is also helping to save hospitals money – sending digital outpatients and wider clinical letters has the potential to save over £1 million per year in postage costs alone.”