Appointment reminders, invitations to health screenings and test results will now be received by patients on their phones.
The government says moving to a more digital-focused NHS will mean 50 million fewer letters need to be sent out by the health service, saving an estimated £200m over the next three years.
Instead, under the new plans, millions of people will be notified about appointments and other important notices via the NHS app on their phone or digital device.
The app is set to become the go-to method for the NHS to communicate with people, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
The changes will be backed by more than £50m investment. It will see a predicted 270 million messages sent through the app this year, an increase of around 70 million on the last financial year, the government announced.
Wes Streeting has said this is all about modernising, as the NHS “feels so 20th century”.
The health secretary said: “The fact that people still get letters through the front door, sometimes multiple letters about the same appointment… The NHS has been stuck in the mud when it comes to the everyday technology we use to organise our lives. And that’s why what we’re doing with the NHS app is really exciting.”
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Mr Streeting said the app will make using the NHS more convenient, and give patients more control, while saving money. He said these funds can then be invested back into the health service, to bolster things such as frontline care.
Using the NHS app should be ‘as joyful as Netflix’
The modernisation of the NHS will also lead to fewer missed appointments, and therefore save money that way too, it is hoped.
In 2023/24, there were around eight million missed appointments in elective care and almost one in three people missed a screening appointment.
Currently, around 20 million people have opted in to receive messages from the NHS app.
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Pushed on how the government will ensure that nobody is left behind, Mr Streeting said: “If someone like me is booking my appointment through the app because that’s what I prefer to do, [then] that’s freeing up a phone line for someone who wants to get through and talk to a person.”
He added that greater use of the app will give people more choice in “how you want to organise your care”.
The cabinet minister also made a bold comparison, saying he wishes that the NHS app is as enjoyable as using streaming giant Netflix.
He said: “The NHS app actually has more subscribers than Netflix. It would be a really wonderful thing if using the NHS app felt – if not as joyful – almost as joyful as using Netflix.”
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Other features in the pipeline – though not yet available – include being able to add appointments to phone calendars and request help from local GPs on the app. Faster log in methods, such as using Face ID, are also planned.
