NHS App Ambassador's January Newsletter

NHS App Ambassadors Newsletter 

Find new NHS App guidance, view the marketing campaign materials, sign up to the latest coffee catch up and get up to date with managing prescriptions in the NHS App in your January newsletter

• Streamlines the prescription process 
• Gives patients confidence their prescription is being managed and allows them to query issues earlier  
• Removes the need for paper tokens, reducing unnecessary printing, and travel for patients 
• Saves NHS time and money 

This follows a successful pilot involving over 800,000 patients. Use our promotional materials and message templates to encourage your patients to use this new NHS App feature, along with the current order a repeat prescription service. 

Future developments, such as prescription tracking, are being explored later this year. Guidance can be found here: Digital prescriptions in the NHS App - NHS Digital

NHS England has launched a new campaign to encourage greater use of the NHS App. It shows how to conveniently access essential health and care services you simply need to ‘tap the App’. 

As with any campaign, the materials are available for you to use and share from the Campaign Resource Centre: NHS App | Campaigns | Campaign Resource Centre (dhsc.gov.uk)

These assets are in addition to the NHS App toolkit already in existence, either can be used and we'll continue to add to the original toolkit.

How it works

You'll be sent an email with your match and potential questions to discuss. It's then your responsibility to arrange a time to meet ‘for a coffee' virtually over Teams or in person.

Ambassadors who previously took part said:

• ‘It was very useful to share ideas and incorporate their ideas’
• ‘I have gained much more than I expected from these sessions’
• 'It was very useful to meet with someone from another region and compare notes. We exchanged a lot of useful resources and agreed to keep in contact’

Please fill in this short form before the 2^nd February to take part: https://forms.office.com/e/aVVcm1KV4a.

The NHS App recently marked its fifth birthday, and new data shows it had 33.6 million registered users, with monthly traffic to the app rising by more than half in the past year.

The total number of monthly logins increased by 54% over 12 months, from 16.8 million in November 2022 to 25.8 million in November 2023 – the equivalent of 10 logins a second!

Read the rest of NHS England’s latest press release about the app here: NHS England » NHS App reaches record users on fifth anniversary

Thank you for all your help in achieving these numbers – as the below ambassador spotlight shows, every effort can make a big difference.

In our latest spotlight, we hear from James (Jimmy) Hipperson, Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner and Independent Prescriber and Partner at Lawson Road Surgery. He shares how one event helped the surgery increase NHS App repeat prescription ordering by 216% in October compared to the beginning of the financial year, and how the app benefits his practice and patients.

How do you promote the NHS App in your area?

We held a very successful engagement event in collaboration with our patient participation group, ICB Digital Team, Norfolk Libraries (IT education) and local Chemist.

We spoke with people who installed the NHS App following COVID but didn’t utilise its potential. We gave demonstrations of the full functionality the app offers and answered queries - assuring patients who didn’t want to download the app that paper medication requests would continue. We also worked with practice staff to ensure clinical system and device settings were correct when patients experienced technical difficulties.

This effort led to a significant increase in uptake and usage during the week following the event for Lawson Road. Repeat prescriptions had gone up 50% from the previous week, medical record views by 40% and logins by 39.4%.

We also have posters up and regular posts on social media and our surgery website.

What would you say are the main benefits of the NHS App to your patients? 

The feedback from patients has been great now that they can book appointments, view test results and order medication from the comfort of their own home 24/7, without the need to contact us.

How does the NHS App benefit those working in General Practice/Pharmacy?

Processing prescription requests is much quicker and easier as it’s now integrated into our notes system (SystemOne). Transcription errors have reduced now we’re no longer relying on paper/handwritten notes.

Patients can also only order repeats that are available to them on the app – the free text box allows extra information to be added which can aid acute requests.

There’s a clear audit trail of when a patient has requested medication so any problems can be investigated quickly. Tracking prescriptions has become much easier with the addition of the EPS prescription barcode. This saves us and the pharmacy time by not having to log onto the spine and it has been a godsend with the current stock and supply issues with multiple medications.

One downside has been that repeat prescriptions can disappear when they are overdue a review. We need to do some education around this to make sure patients don’t panic and appointments aren’t unnecessarily utilised for administrative reasons. The ease of access also has a downside in that patients can send messages much more easily and we often find free text prescription requests that are asking medical rather than medication related questions.

How do you promote the NHS App to your colleagues and have you found any barriers to this?

Some were initially unsure of the benefits as we’ve been bombarded with new technology since the start of COVID - some tech that’s worked and some that hasn’t and is no longer used. Colleagues quickly saw the benefits of the app and how it’s here to stay with the increased usage among patients.

Do you have any other tips for NHS App ambassadors?

Carefully consider how to the NHS App integrates with your existing processes and ensure you promote greater use of the app’s features, not only encouraging patients to download it.

Get the stats for your area using the NHS App Dashboard!