Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has received funding from NHS England to lead on the roll-out of functionality allowing patients to manage their appointments and visits directly from the NHS App. The trust’s implementation will be shared with 11 NHS trusts using SystmOne across the country.
Once live, information from the trust’s EPR will enable patients to view previous and upcoming appointments, receive appointment notifications and documents, and book, cancel, or amend their appointment details, in the NHS App. It also allows patients to fill in questionnaires to update their records, helping trusts to stay informed.
As lead trust for the national roll-out, Humber Teaching has committed to sharing learnings, documents, and processes to support others with onboarding. A monthly meeting has been scheduled to facilitate the sharing of updates as the rollout moves forward.
Lee Rickles, Humber Teaching CIO, said: “We are really pleased to have been chosen for this opportunity by NHS England. As a trust we are committed to a digital-first approach and how this aligns to the NHS 10-year plan. This introduction will support patient experience as well as equip our clinical staff with up-to-date information to support decisions and care.”
Wider trend: The NHS App
NHS England has shared the latest updates on its NHS App Roadmap, including recently completed pilots, current areas of focus, and plans for future development. On appointments, the roadmap details a recent pilot seeing patients on a patient-initiated follow-up pathway requesting follow-up appointments via the app, and work to improve main GP appointment booking by implementing the latest design standards. Current focus is on expanding the PIFU pathway to more patients, and improving how waiting list data is communicated. Next steps will be improving the experience of patients waiting for treatment and extending secondary care appointment management to those managing health services for others.
An end of year update from NHS England revealed that the NHS App has now reached more than 39 million users, with 62.3 million logins in November, and 67.8 million repeat prescriptions ordered through the app in the past 12 months. Zubir Ahmed, health innovation minister, shared these latest stats, reflecting: “From prescription trackers to family features, we’ve upgraded the app this year to make it more helpful, and we are striving to deliver more improvements in the New Year as we build towards the launch of the NHS virtual hospital. Our 10 Year Health Plan is already shifting care from analogue to digital and building an NHS that is fit for the future and fit for us all.”
Patient initiated follow up appointments have been integrated into the NHS App at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, said to promote convenience for patients on PIFU pathways in requesting, confirming, rebooking, or cancelling appointments. Integration with the NHS App follows a successful trial which took place on a single PIFU pathway earlier in December, with integration now planned for all PIFU pathways. “It’s estimated around 8,000 PIFU appointment pathways could benefit from the integration by the end of 2026,” the trust states.
