06.01.20
App Ambassadors help to double NHS App users in three months
NHS Digital has today (Jan 6) published information outlining that the number of patients who use the NHS App has more than doubled in three months.
In September 2019, when Chief Nurse Ruth May launched the ‘NHS App Ambassadors’ scheme, there were 91,000 users, and the number now stands at over 200,000.
The App is being used to book NHS appointments digitally, rather than with a phone call, and access a range of NHS services through a smartphone or tablet. This includes managing repeat prescriptions, viewing medical records, checking symptoms and registering to become an organ donor.
645 frontline NHS staff, including 113 nurses, 39 doctors, 29 occupational therapists, 20 midwives, 20 paramedics and nine physiotherapists, signed up to the scheme and have been promoting the app to colleagues and patients since the announcement.
Tara Donnelly, Chief Digital Officer at NHSX, said:
“NHS staff play an important role in telling people about the NHS App and supporting them to use it. As members of NHS staff, we all use the NHS too and so we’ve been talking to staff about how the NHS App can really benefit them, especially given the busy lives so many lead.
"A growing range of digital tools are available alongside the NHS App, using the infrastructure we developed in building the app, giving people an important choice in how they access NHS services online. Our intention is to encourage NHS staff to help people to understand the choices available. This will mean that some people choose to use another tool instead of, or alongside, the NHS App. This might be an app they have used previously on a longstanding basis or one that provides an additional service that better meets their particular needs.
"We are getting terrific feedback that digital tools are helping put people in better control of their healthcare, and it’s important that, as more and more patients begin using digital routes to access the NHS, our NHS staff are well informed about them to be able to give their patients confidence, and what better way for staff to do that than be a user of digital tools themselves.
“I think it’s brilliant that we have hundreds of Ambassadors starting to spread the message about the services available to them to their colleagues right across the country and I want to say thank you to all of them.”
When using the app, personal data is kept secure through identity checks during registration and a unique security code each time you use the app.
Pictured: NHS Social media campaign