NHS App hits over 30 million sign-ups

Millions more patients across England are benefitting from easier access to their health records and medical services through the NHS App, as sign-ups top 30 million – including 7 million new sign-ups in 2022.

The app, which launched 4 years ago, was one of the most popular free health apps of 2022 – with more people accessing its range of features, including over 65 million GP record views. The government has already met its target to have 68% of people in England registered with the NHS App by March 2023 and is firmly on track to meet its second target to have 75% of people registered by 2024.

A total of 1.7 million GP appointments were booked through the NHS App this year and a record-breaking 22 million repeat prescriptions ordered – up from 9 million over the same period last year. 128,000 people also registered their organ donation decision through the NHS App.

"Since it was launched 4 years ago, millions of people have used the NHS App to book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view GP records," said Simon Bolton, Interim Chief Executive at NHS Digital. "We’ve also added new features to the app to help people manage hospital appointments, book COVID-19 vaccinations and receive messages from GPs. The NHS App is a great example of how technology can be used to help people take control of their healthcare, and access NHS services quickly and easily."

Patients in many parts of the country are also able to view and manage their hospital appointments on the app – helping to build a modern, digital NHS. The new features include:

• viewing all referrals and future hospital appointments in one place
• accessing supporting information for appointments – such as hospital maps
• booking, changing and cancelling appointments

The new features are available to patients at 20 NHS trusts across the country – with another 24 trusts expected to be available by March 2023 – and has been used over 800,000 times.

"Our vision is to transform the NHS App into a front door for the NHS, with many exciting new features and changes planned – delivering on the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to continue to harness the power of technology for patients and staff – which remains at the heart of our plans to innovate patient care for the 21st century," explained Dr Vin Diwakar, medical director for transformation at NHS England.

"People can also receive notifications from their GPs, a feature which has been rolled out across nearly 2,000 practices. Thanks to this effort, over 700,000 messages to update patients – including appointment reminders and test results – have been successfully processed," he continued.

People are also benefitting from the ability to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the NHS App. More than 28,000 bookings have been made via this route in just 4 weeks since the feature was added in November, accounting for 9% of all bookings since this feature was enabled.

Thanks to these kind of features, millions of people are benefitting from easier and quicker access to NHS services – and the government will continue to build on the progress that has already been made.

New features in the app available next year will ensure patients can access more NHS services at their fingertips – including booking their flu vaccination and accessing hospital correspondence, such as pre-consultation questionnaires.