NHS App

The NHS App has undergone significant development to become the App of choice to access NHS services, the redesigned NHS App will make it simpler for patients to find the services they need. In addition to accessing GP services, patients can now also access referral information about their hospital and community services, begin their online consultation journey and receive messages from the practice.

The South East region currently has 59% of our population over the age of 13 already registered to use the NHS App and its 75% target being achieved 3 months ahead of schedule. As practices continue to encourage sign-ups, they can monitor their uptake and utilisation via the NHS App Dashboard.

Benefits for GP practices

The NHS App can offer the following benefits to practices:

  • offers online consultations through several service providers
  • includes an NHS App messaging service, which:
    • is more secure than other message channels, e.g. SMS (texts)
    • can reach the patient regardless of changed phone numbers or different practice registration
    • can be longer and richer in content with branding, linked text and interactive elements
  • secure messaging enabling patients to send non-urgent enquiries to the practice (EMIS and TPP clinical systems only) who then sends replies via the clinical system
  • access to patient records allowing patients aged 16 or over to see information contained in their health record, including allergies and adverse reactions, medications including acute medicines, repeat medicines – both current and discontinued, test results (new results will be visible only when filed) historic results (potentially as far back as 2002) consultations (including free text), events and documents
  • linked profiles and proxy access, once a GP practice has set up a proxy or delegated access, a patient can use the linked profiles feature in the NHS App
  • online appointment booking, making directly bookable appointments available for patients to book online will help to reduce staff time spent on the telephone, as well as empower the patients to manage their own appointments
  • patient interaction with referrals, for referrals made through the e-referral service (e-RS) patients can book, check, change or cancel their appointment, reducing the need for practices to print and post booking instructions. Practice staff will be given the option to send documents electronically if the patient has the service enabled
  • prescription ordering, with the option of the patient nominating a pharmacy for dispensing
  • updates, guidance on the latest updates and releases

Benefits for patients

Patients can use the NHS App to:

  • View messages, in a secure inbox, from the NHS App, from their GP practice or other healthcare provider – notifications must be switched on in the App settings to be alerted to incoming messages
  • View linked profiles, which enables family members/carers to access health services on behalf of the patient – this has to be enabled by the GP surgery as a proxy or delegated access
  • Securely view the GP patient health record, to see information like allergies, and current and past medicines – patients can also see information like filed test results and the details of consultations
  • Order repeat prescriptions, from a list of available medicines, and choose the dispensing pharmacy. They can also see the previous order
  • Book or cancel Appointments at their registered GP surgery and see details of upcoming and past Appointments
  • View referrals and other healthcare Appointments (if the practice has enabled this service)
  • Get health advice, for example:
  • about Coronavirus
  • find trusted NHS information on the NHS website’s Health A-Z pages
  • use an active link to NHS 111for online help and guidance or when to call 111 instead
  • answer guided questions online, through a linked online consultation service provider to get a response from the patient’s registered GP practice for themselves or for a child
  • View NHS number, visible on the home page 
  • View and manage care plans (if the GP practice has enabled this service)
  • Register for organ donation, and subsequently manage patient choices through the link on the App
  • Choose if confidential data from their health records is shared for research and planning and change any decision through the App
  • Get help with technical issues, with troubleshooting advice and a link to contact the NHS App team
  • Access account information and settings, for example, fingerprint, face or iris logon can be enabled, legal information, including terms of use/ privacy policy/accessibility statement/open source licences, and the use of cookies Current platform allows patients to be able to access the service even if they update mobile number, smartphone, etc
  • Access a help function, with advice about a range of clinical issues like mental health and urgent medical assistance, as well as help with the App functions, like messaging.

Internal Resources for Practices

External Resources for Patients

how to Switch profiles / Proxy access on the NHS App