In the past 3 months over 100,000 people have registered for the NHS App, NHS Digital has announced.
Since the launch of a new scheme, 645 App Ambassadors, NHS frontline staff have been recruited to support the campaign. In September there were 91,000 registered users of the NHS App, with the number of users more than doubling in the past three months to over 200,000 users.
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.”
645 App Ambassadors are spread across England including 113 nurses, 39 doctors/GPs, 29 occupational therapists, 20 midwives, 20 paramedics and 9 physiotherapists.
Ian Phoenix, Director of Technology for Citizen Health at NHS Digital, said “It’s fantastic to see so many NHS staff choosing to use the NHS App themselves and reporting back to us that they’re seeing benefits, whether it be from being able to quickly and simply order their repeat prescriptions, view their medical records, set their organ donation preferences or check symptoms.”
“If you’ve not yet downloaded it yourself, do give it a try.”
