Millions more patients will receive appointment reminders, screening invitations, and test results directly to their smartphones as the NHS turbocharges its digital revolution to make it easier for patients to access care.
The NHS App is set to become the go-to method of communication between the health system and patients, avoiding the need for at least 50 million costly letters to go through the postal system.
Driven by over £50 million investment, 270 million messages are expected to be sent through the NHS App this year – an increase of 70 million on last financial year, saving an estimated £200m across the system over the next three years.
This latest development forms part of the government’s shift from analogue to digital, to give patients better access to manage their healthcare journey and make informed decisions about their care.
In 2023/24, there were around 8 million missed appointments in elective care, and around 30% of people missed a screening appointment. Push notifications will remind patients about upcoming appointments and relay important messages, allowing for faster communication and reducing the risk of these missed appointments and boosting productivity across the system.
Currently, almost 20 million are opted in to receive healthcare messages via the NHS App and could soon benefit from this latest expansion. The NHS is appealing to patients to download the NHS App and turn on notifications to make sure they receive important updates
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:
People are living increasingly busy lives and want to access information about their health at the touch of a button, rather than having to wait weeks for letters that often arrive too late. This government is bringing our analogue health service into the digital age, so that being a patient in the NHS is as convenient as online banking or ordering a takeaway.
The NHS still spends hundreds of millions of pounds on stamps, printing, and envelopes. By modernising the health service, we can free up huge amounts of funding to reinvest in the frontline.
Through the investment and reform in our Plan for Change, we will make the NHS App the front door to the health service and put power in the hands of patients.
As part of this digital-first transformation, over the next three years, patients in England will receive all appropriate NHS messages through the App first. Where app messaging is not available, communications will be sent via SMS and then by letter as a last resort. This means that people without access to smartphones and elderly patients can still receive messages through traditional routes, ensuring that no vital information is missed. Those without smartphone access will also benefit from phone lines being freed up, with many patients able to get the information they need digitally.
Accessible communications will continue to be supported for those with specific requirements.
The implementation of digital services across the health service is already well underway. Last year, the national vaccination programmes delivered 85 million messages via digital channels, and later this year, national screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer will also be making the switch.
Dr Vin Diwakar, Clinical Transformation Director at NHS England, said:
More than 11 million of us now log into the NHS App every month to manage our healthcare, whether ordering a repeat prescription or seeking advice on a medical condition.
We’re supporting the switch from analogue to digital by harnessing the power of digital communication channels so that millions more patients can receive important messages about their health direct to their smartphones – all you need to do is enable notifications in the NHS App to see and open messages.
The NHS App is already empowering patients by giving them more information and now by increasingly becoming a world-class way of communicating – which will save millions of pounds and free up resources for patient care. I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t got the app on their smartphone to download it now.
This latest development comes in addition to work currently underway to improve user experience in the App. Through various expansions, users will soon be able to add appointments to the calendar on their phone and request help from their GP surgery. It will also seek to drive increased usage through faster log in methods, such as Face ID.
With NHS App services now live in 87% of hospitals across England, delivered in line with commitments made as part of the Elective Care Reform Plan, patients will have greater control of their elective care, improving access and modernising NHS as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
