The Government is calling on NETFLIX to help improve its NHS app as the Health Secretary looks to bring technology fit for the 21st century

Netflix will be asked to modernize its NHS app under plans being considered by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

As The Mail on Sunday understands, he wants to hire experts from the streaming giant to improve patients’ comfort in using healthcare.

A government source said: “I want the usability of the NHS app to be as good as Netflix. Why wouldn’t you encourage them to share what they know about improving customer service?

It is understood the Health Secretary also wants to use Amazon’s logistics expertise to help the NHS.

The proposals are part of plans to bring health care technology into the 21st century.

Streeting told the Labor conference last week that operating theaters would function like Formula One pit stops, with doctors sent to 20 hospitals to implement rapid surgery techniques.

The set is modeled on the operating theaters at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

Streeting said: “We are sending teams of top clinicians to hospitals across the country to implement surgeon-led reforms that will help treat more patients and reduce waiting lists.”

Priority will be given to parts of the north and midlands where there are the highest rates of sickness absence.

More than 34 million people are currently registered with the NHS app, which officials have described as the “digital front door” to the NHS.

It is increasingly used to book appointments, and in June 2024, patients submitted over 1.4 million GP requests via it.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We know technology can play a key role in transforming patient outcomes and experiences. We are committed to improving the NHS App and ensuring it works better for everyone.”

An NHS spokesman said: “More than three in four people in England have signed up to the NHS app – that’s more than twice the number of Netflix subscribers.”