Sufferers to obtain reminders and take a look at outcomes by way of NHS App first

Sufferers in England will obtain appointment reminders, screening invites and take a look at outcomes by way of the NHS App first, as a part of a £50 million improve.

A press launch, printed by the Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) on 7 June 2025, stated that the app will change into the first methodology of communication between the well being system and sufferers, avoiding the necessity for at the least 50 million letters to undergo the postal system.

Wes Streeting, well being secretary, stated: “Individuals are dwelling more and more busy lives and need to entry details about their well being on the contact of a button, relatively than having to attend weeks for letters that usually arrive too late.

“This authorities is bringing our analogue well being service into the digital age, in order that being a affected person within the NHS is as handy as on-line banking or ordering a takeaway.

“The NHS nonetheless spends a whole bunch of tens of millions of kilos on stamps, printing, and envelopes.

“By modernising the well being service, we will unlock big quantities of funding to reinvest within the frontline.”

DHSC expects that round 270 million messages might be despatched by way of the NHS App in 2025 a rise of 70 million on the final monetary yr, saving an estimated £200m throughout the system over the subsequent three years.

In accordance with analysis by the Taxpayer’s Alliance, reported by The Telegraph, the NHS spent at the least £102 million sending letters by publish in 2024, a rise of 12.5% on the yr earlier than.

Dr Vin Diwakar, scientific transformation director at NHS England, stated: “Greater than 11 million of us now log into the NHS App each month to handle our healthcare, whether or not ordering a repeat prescription or looking for recommendation on a medical situation.

“We’re supporting the change from analogue to digital by harnessing the ability of digital communication channels in order that tens of millions extra sufferers can obtain necessary messages about their well being direct to their smartphones – all you’ll want to do is allow notifications within the NHS App to see and open messages.

“The NHS App is already empowering sufferers by giving them extra data and now by more and more turning into a world-class manner of speaking – which can save tens of millions of kilos and unlock assets for affected person care.

“I’d encourage anybody who hasn’t received the app on their smartphone to obtain it now.”

DHSC stated that the place app messaging shouldn’t be accessible, communications might be despatched by way of SMS after which by letter as a final resort to permit individuals with out entry to smartphones and aged sufferers to have the ability to obtain messages by way of conventional routes.

Individuals with out smartphone entry are anticipated to learn from telephone traces being freed up when many different sufferers can get the data that they want digitally.

Work can be underway to enhance consumer expertise within the NHS App by permitting customers so as to add appointments to the calendar on their telephones and request assist from their GP surgical procedure.  It can additionally search to drive elevated utilization by way of sooner log in strategies, similar to Face ID.

In Might 2025, a prescription monitoring function was rolled out within the NHS App.