The NHS app, piloted in 2018 originally, has been downloaded 30 million times according to recent findings, with people utilising it for identification such as outlining their preferences for organ donation. It can also be used to perform vital services such as making GP appointments or ordering prescriptions.
According to the NHS, 448,000 people had used it to make organ-donation decisions between September 2021 and August 2022, representing a 69% increase on the previous 12 months, seeing major growth in the usage.
Dr Tim Ferris NHS director for transformation, added:
“We are transforming the NHS App into a front door for the NHS, so the millions of people currently using it can set their organ donation preferences but also do much more to manage their health and access services.”
With more than half the population of England in app downloads, this is quickly showing the need and appetite for digital integration into the health service. NHS statistics show:
- Organ donation preferences have been managed over 3.7m times through the NHS App.
- Over 832,000 updates to existing organ donation decisions
- 448,000 organ donation decisions registered for the first time, (183,000 of these since September 2021)
- Over 19.3 million repeat prescriptions ordered via the app in the last year (September 2021 – August 2022)
- 1.4 million GP appointments booked via the app in the last year (September 2021 – August 2022)
Susie Day, NHS Digital Director of Delivery for the NHS App, said:
"Millions of people are continuing to use the NHS app to take control of their healthcare directly from their phone or the NHS website, with over 30 million sign-ups now recorded.
"It's great to see rising numbers of people using the app to register and manage their organ donation decisions and we encourage everyone, if they haven't already done so, to record this important decision through the app or online."
