The new NHS app is live with private beta testers, according to an announcement at the recent UK Health Show from Juilet Bauer, NHS England’s chief digital officer.

It is being piloted to up to 2,000 patients in Liverpool, Bristol, South Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Hastings. This beta phase is an invite-only affair, and requires an email address from users in order to register.

The purpose of the NHS app is to give patients digital access to a range of NHS services, including being able to book appointments, being able to view their medical records, the ability to order repeat prescriptions, to select organ donation preferences, select data-sharing preferences, to chose end of life-care preferences and to access the NHS 111 online symptom checker and triage service.

The development and delivery of the app is part of the NHS’s goal of digitising its services and modernising the health service for the digital age.

New NHS App Now in Beta Testing Phase

The plans for the app were announced just over a year ago by the then health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Paired with the launch of the revamped NHS Choices website, the app was viewed as a 70th birthday present to the health service.

Bauer notes that the short turnaround for the app development was a large task, and added it is far from complete. Like all beta testing, this phase is crucial for discovering potential flaws and vulnerabilities before it is rolled out across the UK. After the pilot, user experiences will be gathered via email survey and this feedback will be used to help refine the app. It is hoped the national rollout will take place next year.

Since its first inception the app has changed several times, with several ideas modified or scrapped entirely. For example, one of the key ideas was to use the standard procurement model for clinical services, where clinical commissioning groups each procure their own services and therefore there would be local apps, specific to the region.

However, in the final discovery document on the app, which was released under the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that people felt the user experience was confusing. On the basis of this feedback it was decided to go with one simple app for all.

NHS App Linked to NHS’s Citizen ID Programme

According to Bauer, NHS England and NHS Digital are also looking at how fingerprint scanning could be incorporated into the app. The purpose of this is to enabled a single and secure way of being able to safely use all the services the app offers.

The hope is that people using the app will verify their identity via the Citizen ID platform. The app team worked closely with the Citizen ID team to map out the user journey and system interaction. The Citizen ID platform will also use an “offline couching identity service” where the patient’s clinician can generate a “token of trust” for a patient to be able to access their medical records online.

Bauer and her team have plans to bring in private app developers, whose services and apps can be integrated with the NHS, for example through signposting in the NHS app for health condition-specific apps in the NHS apps library.