Revealed: NHS app is used to book less than 1% of GP appointments, sparking users to question its usefulness

It was supposed to revolutionize the health service by allowing patients to book a doctor’s appointment direct from their tablet or smartphone. When the NHS app was launched in 2019, then health minister Jeremy Hunt boasted it would ‘mark the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients’.

The app was also designed to allow patients to view test results, medical records, upcoming appointments and order repeat prescriptions.

But five years on, the app appears not to be living up to its promises. Analysis carried out by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that fewer than one per cent of GP appointments are booked through the app. And according to patients and GPs alike, there are myriad other issues.

Last week, our resident GP Dr Ellie Cannon wrote in her column that she couldn’t find her own health records on the app, and asked readers to send in their experiences. In response we received countless emails from readers who said that, despite their best efforts, they had also been unable to use the app, which they described as ‘useless’ and ‘infuriating’.

Janet Higgins, from Lancashire, was astonished to find that a friend from a town just five miles away could book appointments through the system but she couldn’t. She said: ‘I can use the NHS app to order repeat prescriptions – but I can’t book appointments, look up my medical records up or check any test results.

‘But my friend is with a different medical practice and can look up all her data and also book appointments. It should be available to everyone.’

Mike Lawrence, from Woking, said he can no longer contact his GP by phone but is unable to make an appointment with the app. ‘It is supposed to cover many aspects of the GPs’ work, but for the important things like appointments it is useless,’ he said.

It’s not just patients who report issues with the app. Professor Dame Clare Gerada, former president of the Royal College of GPs, says the NHS app had many positive uses but it does not allow her to book an appointment with her family doctor.

‘I think the app is fabulous – I can see all my medications and test results,’ she says. ‘But when I look for an appointment, for example, all it allows me to do is to book for a smear test.’

So was it unrealistic for the Government to claim that the NHS app could become the primary place to book a GP appointment – ​​or could the system be improved?

When the app was launched, very few chose to download it, largely due to a lack of publicity or understanding of its role.

Between January 2019 and May 2021, just eight million people signed up for it. However, when it was announced that the app would display Covid vaccination status, the number of users quadrupled. It eventually reached 30 million downloads, making it one of the most popular apps in the country. This drive was due to suggestions that the Government was considering implementing Covid passports, which would require people to be prohibited in order to access public spaces such as nightclubs and football matches.

But once these plans were dropped, the number of people regularly using the app fell.

Latest NHS England data shows that while, in April, around eight million people logged in, only 900,000 ordered repeat prescriptions and an astonishingly low 48,000 booked a GP appointment – ​​less than one per cent of the seven million that are made, on average, every week.

And last year, a report published by the Health and Social Care parliamentary committee warned that the benefits of the app were ‘not clear to many existing users’ and the NHS needed to do more to ‘demonstrate (its) continuing value’. The report added that the ‘current integration of the app with NHS services was limited’.

GP practices and hospitals are supposed to input their patients’ NHS records – including recent tests, prescriptions and diagnoses – into the app.

Some experts say the reason crucial information is not appearing is because experts are not taking the time to update patients’ notes on it.

Others say many GP practices have decided not to use the app for appointments because they worry it will disadvantage patients who do not have it – roughly one in ten Britons do not have a smartphone and about four million over-65s do not use the internet.

‘It’s not that doctors are reluctant to accept the new technology,’ says Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP and medical education expert at the University of Oxford. ‘They’re worried appointments would get snapped up very quickly – and not necessarily by the people who need them most.’

Instead, Dr Salisbury argues that it is more efficient for GP surgeries to make appointment bookings over the phone – as family doctors can decide who needs to be seen soonest, as opposed to giving the next available appointment to the person who can log into the app the fastest. ‘Some practices are already overwhelmed with appointment requests,’ she says, ‘so opening up the system and allowing everyone to book whenever they want isn’t a great idea.’

Not all readers are unhappy with the app. Michael Treacher, 75, from Staffordshire, has type 1 diabetes and uses the ‘very useful’ app to book GP appointments and order prescriptions.

Meanwhile, Margaret Jacques, 78, says she regularly uses the ‘helpful’ app to keep track of her upcoming hospital visits and to order prescriptions.

However, the majority say they are keen to use the app but find there are very few tasks they are able to complete using it.

‘I can’t renew my prescription or see my medical records,’ says Karen Misselbrook, from Southampton. ‘The only things I can see are my name, date of birth and Covid vaccination record. It is a great idea, but it should be improved so it actually works.’

A spokesperson for NHS England said: ‘We are continuing to improve the app. We know there is more to do and are committed to supporting all practices and trusts to embed new digital tools that support easier access for patients and the allocation of appointments.’

• To download the app, go to nhs.uk/nhs-app/