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Patients will be able to order prescriptions, receive test results and choose hospitals via their phones under a major expansion of the NHS app, part of the long-awaited 10-year plan for the UK’s health service.
Ministers hope that by expanding the functions of the app, now used by more than 37mn people, they can change the public’s relationship with the NHS, often accused of being unwieldy and unresponsive, and give them a greater sense of control over their own care.
Details of the app’s revamp are expected to be announced in the government’s spending review on June 11.
Three people familiar with the process said that about £200mn in cuts to the app’s budget made by the previous Conservative administration were likely to be reversed, although discussions over the health department’s settlement in the spending review were still ongoing.
The NHS 10 Year Health Plan, to be presented by health and social care secretary Wes Streeting later in the summer, will allow patients to view their test and scan results on the app. They will also be able to receive information about available treatments and clinical trials, as well as choose which hospital to go to based on official ratings and current waiting times, according to people briefed on the plan.
“There is no question the app is crap at the moment, but it’s such a great opportunity to modernise the NHS and give patients far more choice, information, and control over their own healthcare,” said one government official.
In an “elective recovery plan” published in January, health leaders suggested the app would be a significant tool in meeting a target for the vast majority of people to start non-urgent treatment within 18 weeks of referral to a consultant by 2029.
In April, the government said the app, which allowed patients to “access treatment more conveniently”, had already prevented 1.5mn hospital appointments from being missed.
Pritesh Mistry, fellow in digital technologies at The King’s Fund, said while the NHS App “can’t solve everything, there is clearly huge potential for it to make it easier for us all to interact with the health service”, making it more efficient for staff and patients.
However, he warned that the app was “only as good as the system it plugs into. It’s no good having a shiny user interface if it connects to creaky dysfunctional systems”. For the government to truly deliver its goal of shifting the health service from analogue to digital, “it needs to continue to invest in core NHS systems and infrastructure”, he added.
The government also believes that, by collating millions of patients’ medical records, it can create one of the world’s largest data repositories for life sciences research. This is a potentially rich trove both for academia and for pharmaceutical companies seeking to carry out clinical trials.
The government’s plan for the NHS is expected to include a section extolling the capacity of digital technology and big data to transform patient care — although these developments are likely to take several years to be fully realised.
The government said: “Our 10 Year Health Plan will bring our analogue health service into the digital age. This government will transform the NHS App, to put information, choice, and control in the hands of patients.”
