NHS app could offer video consultations by 2024

The NHS app will be updated over the next few years to include multiple new features, including remote video consultations between patients and GPs, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The update to the app is part of new measures, unveiled in the Plan for Digital Health and Social Care, which explains how technologies will be used to “drive efficiency, free up hospital space and clinical time, and bust the COVID-19 backlogs.” 

More users of the app should be able to use it to message their GP, book COVID-19 vaccinations, check their medical records, and manage hospital elective care appointments, from March 2023. 

The NHS App is expected to become a “digital front door to NHS services”, according to the DHSC. The DHSC also says that 28 million people already have it installed on their phone and the ambition is to have 75% of adults using it by March 2024.

Other elements of the digital plan include the expansion of remote patient monitoring at home – with an objective of increasing this to 280,000 patients at present to 780,000 by March 2023 – and a “virtual ward” strategy that will allow patients to carry out hospital pre-assessment checks from home by September 2024.

In a statement, the DHSC said, “The plan sets out how we will improve access to information for people and their care teams through the NHS App and NHS.uk – resulting in faster, more personalised treatment.”

“This includes bringing information together into the app and enabling people to view and manage hospital appointments, have virtual consultations, and see notifications from their GP.”

Lina Adams