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But what does it mean for industry?

A decade after Apple launched the Appstore, the NHS is launching a new mobile app to make it quicker and easier to access health services. For a generation of Britons who have grown up accessing everything from mobile banking to grocery shopping through an app, the launch cannot come soon enough.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the app as a "birthday present from the NHS to the British people", 70 years after it was founded. There have been laudable efforts to achieve channel shift in the NHS – but they have been disparate initiatives, often explicitly precluded from achieving anything like national scale.  It’s been a long time coming, but the app could be a game changer for a service that still relies heavily on physical queues and second class stamps.

The app will not be launched until December, but promises to allow users to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and access their own GP record. Users will also be able to sign up as organ donors, decide how their health data is used and get 111-style advice. This is the low-hanging fruit of digitisation – functionality that we know is possible because it is happening in other industries and in other geographies. Three out of five interactions with the NHS are to book, change or cancel appointments so there are huge potential savings from digitising the process for the majority of users.

What Are The Implications For Industry?

The app has been developed by NHS England and NHS Digital.

A unified, user-friendly front end is no doubt good for the public but could crowd out a number of apps that have already been developed as a ‘front door’ to our health system. Similarly, the NHS has been encouraging privately developed online triage services through pilots over the years. An in-house digital 111 service opens obvious questions to how these players work with the NHS in the future.   

The buy vs build question will no doubt be at the forefront of discussions between industry and the NHS in the coming weeks. It looks like the app will rely on some industry solutions but exclude others. Industry needs clear, consistent, long-term messages about where opportunities exist if they are to invest in creating world-class health tech with the NHS in mind.

Like any system, the NHS app will only be as good as the data it relies on. A user-friendly front end will be welcome, but it can only work if secure, digitised, interoperable health records exist behind the veneer. The initial commitment is that people will be able to access their GP record. But the real value in health data is when it can be connected across different settings. Questions remain as to the ambition and scale of the app beyond its initial launch.

Find Out More

techUK is co-hosting two industry engagement events with NHS England and NHS Digital in London and Leeds. The events will give industry the opportunity to see the plans in more detail and ask questions from the strategy and delivery teams.

• NHS App Consultation Event - London
• NHS App Consultation Event - Leeds 

The DHSC press release announcing the app can be found here.