CW+ Premium Content/Computer Weekly

The NHS has launched the private beta phase of its long-awaited app, which gives patients access to a range of NHS services at their fingertips. As patients slowly begin to use the app, Computer Weekly takes a closer look at how it has developed from idea to reality, and what this means for a health service that is moving into the era of self-service. The plan for an all- singing, all-dancing NHS app was first touted by the then health secretary Jeremy Hunt a little over a year ago. Seen as a 70th birthday present to the health service, the app was tied in with the launch of the revamped NHS Choices website, now named NHS.UK – the new “digital front door” to the NHS. The app aims to give patients access to a range of NHS services, including being able to book appointments, view their medical records, order repeat prescriptions, select their data-sharing preferences, organ donation preferences, end-of-life care preferences and access NHS 111 online’s symptom checker and triage service. Last month, health secretary Matt Hancock ...