On 18th March NHSX, NHS Digital and Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams would be available for free for three months.
The tool was rolled out to all NHSmail users on 20th March and between March 22–28 it was used to facilitate 973,072 private online chats, rising from 6,804 on March 22 to a peak of 243,927 on March 26.
During the same seven-day period, it also facilitated 66,736 team online chats, 76,173 private calls and 68,365 team calls.
This means there has been approximately 28,148 unique users per day and reaching a peaking of 44,885 on March 27.
Ben Davison, Executive Director for Product Development at NHS Digital said “These are unprecedented times and with social distancing now the norm for everyone, we’re really starting to see digital technologies come to the fore – not just in the NHS but in all walks of life.”
“Good technology is making it possible for doctors, nurses and other health professionals to continue to deliver care remotely where possible and freeing up time for those patients who need face-to-face care. It’s keeping people well whilst they are isolated with good information and advice and the ability to manage things like prescriptions remotely.”
“We’re fully prepared for the numbers using NHS tech to continue increasing over the coming days and weeks, as the general public continue to play a key role in helping to ease the burden on our fantastic frontline services.”
Other NHS services have also seen an increase over the past 4 weeks:
NHS Website hits 61 million visits
There has also been an increase in other NHS services, the NHS website has seen over 28 million views to it’s COVID-19 webpage and there has been a 100% increase in visitors to the website, reaching over 61 million visits.
NHS App sees 111% increase in registered users
In March 2020, there were 119,512 registrations to use the NHS App, which is an increase of 111% from February when there were 56,655.
The number of repeat prescription requests made via the app increased by 97%.
NHS login increased 45%
The number of NHS login accounts increased by 45% last month – from 670,796 at the end of February to 1,002,689 at the end of March.
Electronic Prescribing Service rises by 1.25 million
Pharmacies have seen an increase in the number of EPS nominations, with numbers rising by over 1.25m from 33.27m on February 28 to 34.52m on March 27.
