Hospital patients across England can now view referrals and hospital appointments in the NHS App, making it easier for millions to manage care in one place. Around two-thirds (64%) of hospital appointments are currently visible in the app, and many users can also reschedule or cancel bookings, helping to reduce missed visits.
The NHS App is now linked to every acute NHS trust in England. That connection reduces reliance on paper letters and SMS, cuts administrative costs, frees staff time, and boosts productivity—benefits that support efforts to tackle waiting lists. Some 41 million people are registered with the app to access services such as test results, prescriptions, patient records, secure messaging and appointment information from anywhere.
Use of the app is growing fast: more than 15 million people logged in during March alone, an increase of almost a third over the past year. Prescription ordering via the app rose by more than a third, saving time for both patients and NHS staff. In March there were 8.7 million appointment and referral views via the app, up 93% on the same month a year earlier.
NHS leaders say the app gives people more control over their care, cuts unnecessary paperwork, reduces missed appointments and frees up staff to focus on waiting lists and clinical work. Around half of trusts can already send appointment reminders through NHS App push notifications, and patients can access documents such as discharge summaries in the app, reducing the need for paper records.
Planned developments over the next year include the ability to request follow-up appointments through the app and expanded access to specialist care via NHS Online, the service that will digitally connect patients with expert clinicians across England. NHS Online—due to accept its first patients next year—will offer triage through the app and video consultations, speeding access to specialist advice regardless of location.
The NHS App has also been refreshed to be simpler and more intuitive, with a redesigned homepage that makes key services—prescriptions, appointments and test results—quicker and easier to find.