Key Summary
- Nearly 400,000 people have used the NHS App’s ‘Amazon-style’ prescription tracker since May
- Feature reduces pharmacy calls by up to 80% and will expand to 5,000 more pharmacies
- NHS App use is growing, with record prescription orders and test result views
The user-friendly “Amazon-style” prescription tracker in the NHS app has been used by nearly 400,000 individuals for 715,000 times since its launch in May.
According to NHS, the tracker is used once in every nine seconds and this is helping users reduce unnecessary calls and visits to pharmacies.
Around 1,650 high street chemists in the country, including all the Boots branches in England, currently offer this service, and this is expected to be made available to nearly 5,000 more pharmacies within the next 12 months, covering 60 percent of those in England.
The prescription tracker enables the users to know whether their medicines are “ready to collect” or “dispatched by the pharmacy”.
Estimates show that approximately 4.4 million people viewed their prescriptions via the app, among which 394,000 use the tracker.
The tracker has also contributed to reduce 45 percent of phone calls to community pharmacies to enquire about their medicines.
Ryan’s Pharmacy in West Yorkshire, the second busiest in Yorkshire, used to dispense 30,000 plus prescriptions in a month with the support of five phonelines. Now their integration with NHS app has reduced calls by 80 per cent.
Latest data shows the NHS App now has 37.4 million registered users with an average of 11.4 million people logging in each month.
A total of 61.5 million repeat prescriptions have been ordered via the NHS App in the last 12 months, a 46 percent increase on the previous year (42.2 million).
There were also 87.4 million views of patient test results during the same period.
NHS England clinical transformation director Dr Vin Diwakar said, “The prescription tracking feature is just one of many planned improvements to the NHS App, which will soon expand to offer patients more appointment options and greater choice as part of the government’s commitment to put patients in control of their healthcare and reduce waiting lists.”
Health secretary Wes Streeting said, “Through our Plan for Change we are dragging the NHS into the digital age and giving patients more control and choice over their healthcare.”
