Libraries in England to promote the NHS App

NHS England has announced plans to work with libraries to help more people access online health services and use the NHS App.

The scheme will launch in October 2024 in partnership with the National Health Literacy Partnership, which brings together the national NHS Knowledge and Library Services team at NHSE, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), Libraries Connected, and Arts Council England.

NHSE will provide toolkits and information to public libraries and NHS libraries, so that staff can help people to use the NHS App and NHS.UK to better understand and manage their health.

John Quinn, chief information officer at NHSE, said: “Public libraries are at the heart of our communities and offer a significant opportunity to reach those who face barriers when it comes to accessing their health information online.

“The NHS App has more than 34 million registered users and we want to ensure no-one is excluded from using this service.”

Louise Goswami, chief knowledge officer for NHSE, said: “We are delighted to see this development with libraries, which builds on the great work we already do with the CILIP and public library colleagues, where we have trained 178 health literacy trainers in NHS libraries and run health literacy pilots at 14 public library sites.

“Through these pilots we learned that people were happy to be shown how to use NHS.UK by public library staff, so this phased rollout through public libraries will help even more people to access and make the most of their health information online.”

Work is already underway in a small number of libraries across England to support people to get started with the NHS App.

Stephen Kinnock, health minister, said: “The NHS App has a vital role to play in getting our health service back on its feet – and this scheme will help boost access across the country.

“We will transform the app, putting patients in control of their own health to better manage their medicine, appointments, and health needs”.

NHSE figures show that the app was used by 12 million people between March 2024 and May 2024, including 2.3 million aged 66 and over.

Of these, 309,474 users were in their 80s and 34,451 users were aged 90 and over.

Figures also show that 11.6 million repeat prescriptions were ordered via the NHS App between March 2024 and May 2024, including 3.1 million by pensioners.

In April 2024, a report from The Digital Coalition, the patient coalition for AI, data and digital tech in health, found that 78% of 600 respondents surveyed used the app.

Of those surveyed, 39% said they would like to have the functionality to access test results, and 36% said they would like the ability to access personal health records via the app.