The NHS has issued the replace in order that sufferers at each acute NHS belief in England can now verify their hospital referrals and appointments in a single place
The brand new replace is designed to make it simpler for tens of millions of individuals to handle their care (Picture: Getty )
The NHS has unveiled a big replace for tens of millions of sufferers who attend referrals and appointments, bringing a serious new function to its widely-used app. The well being service introduced the event on social media on the morning of April 29.
In a publish on X, the NHS stated: “Now you can handle your hospital appointments utilizing the NHS App!” Whereas NHS England wrote: “Hospital sufferers can now verify their referrals and appointments by way of the NHS App. The NHS App is now linked as much as each acute NHS belief in England, serving to hospitals to save cash by decreasing the necessity for paper letters and textual content messages.”
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Sufferers at each NHS belief throughout England can now view their referrals and appointments straight within the NHS app. The replace has been designed to make it easier for tens of millions of individuals to supervise their care in a single, handy location, experiences the Mirror.
Roughly two-thirds (64%) of all hospital appointments are presently accessible through the app. Many sufferers may also reschedule or cancel them, serving to scale back the variety of missed appointments.
The NHS App is now related to each acute NHS belief in England, which the well being service says is enabling hospitals to chop prices by decreasing their reliance on paper letters and SMS textual content messages. The app is moreover liberating up workers time and sources, “growing productiveness and serving to scale back ready lists”
Roughly 41 million persons are registered with the NHS App to entry providers. These embody check outcomes, prescriptions, affected person data, affected person messaging and appointment data from wherever they’re. In response to the NHS, greater than 15 million customers logged into the app throughout March alone, an increase of just about a 3rd over the previous 12 months. Prescription orders positioned by way of the app additionally climbed by greater than a 3rd, which the well being service says frees up worthwhile time for each sufferers and NHS workers.
Sufferers in any respect acute NHS trusts commissioned to ship grownup providers can now view their referrals and appointments through the NHS App. The NHS experiences there have been 8.7 million views final month, a staggering 93% improve in comparison with the identical interval a 12 months in the past.
These receiving remedy at round half of all trusts can now obtain appointment reminders by way of NHS App push notifications, serving to to cut back missed appointments. They’re additionally capable of entry well being paperwork, reminiscent of discharge summaries, straight inside the app, reducing down on pointless paperwork.
New options deliberate for the NHS App over the approaching 12 months embody the power to request follow-up appointments and entry specialist care by way of the NHS’s new on-line hospital.
Now you can handle your hospital appointments utilizing the NHS App! https://t.co/SsZK0h7V9U
— NHS (@NHSuk) April 29, 2026
Jules Hunt, Director Normal of Expertise, Digital and Information for the NHS, stated: “Tens of millions of sufferers throughout England can now simply entry details about their hospital referrals and appointments by way of the NHS App, giving them extra management and selection about their care and reducing out pointless paperwork.
“This can be a nice instance of how we’re reworking sufferers’ expertise of healthcare and harnessing digital know-how as a part of the Authorities’s 10 Yr Well being Plan. The know-how helps to cut back missed appointments and liberating up very important NHS workers time to allow them to sort out ready lists extra successfully – and I might encourage all NHS App customers to profit from its options.”
Dr Zubir Ahmed, Well being Innovation and Security Minister, stated: “The NHS App is already reworking the best way folks handle their care – and these figures present simply how standard it’s. With sufferers at each hospital now capable of view their referrals and appointments, and tens of millions extra ordering prescriptions and receiving well being messages digitally, we’re reducing the admin burden whereas serving to to drive down ready lists.
Hospital sufferers can now verify appointments within the NHS App (inventory picture) (Picture: Getty)
“Fewer missed appointments means extra sufferers getting the remedy they want, sooner. The NHS App is central to our ambition of shifting the NHS from analogue to digital and giving the affected person extra management – and we’re solely simply beginning there.”
The NHS has confirmed that NHS On-line, which is about to welcome its first sufferers subsequent 12 months, will “remodel and modernise the supply of healthcare by offering triage by way of the NHS App and video consultations with docs.”
It added: “The service will velocity up specialist care by digitally connecting sufferers with skilled clinicians throughout England, regardless of the place they’re within the nation, offering quicker entry to therapies. The NHS App has additionally not too long ago been up to date to make it easier, extra intuitive and simpler to navigate – with key providers like prescriptions, appointments and check outcomes faster to search out from the brand new homepage.”
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