Rotherham NHS Basis Belief has deployed Affected person Initiated Comply with-up (PIFU) by the NHS App, in partnership with Netcall.
This improvement, which went reside on 10 December 2025, aligns with the NHS App’s core goal set out within the 10 yr well being plan to behave because the ‘digital entrance door’ to the well being service, giving sufferers simpler and sooner entry to care.
PIFU permits sufferers to request follow-up appointments after they want them quite than being locked into routine schedules, serving to to streamline outpatient pathways and lowering missed appointments.
Sally Atkinson, head of affected person entry at Rotherham NHS Basis Belief, mentioned: “Working with Netcall, we began by making it simpler for sufferers to e book appointments by the NHS App.
“Including PIFU seems like the subsequent pure step. It means sufferers don’t have to attend for us to name as they will attain out after they want care.
“That flexibility makes an enormous distinction for them as they will request appointments even when the reserving traces are closed. It’s about giving individuals management and making the entire course of easier for everybody.”
Sufferers in Rotherham can now set off their very own appointments digitally, eliminating the necessity for prolonged cellphone calls or paperwork.
The transfer to deploy PIFU by way of the NHS App positions Rotherham forward of nationwide targets. The NHS Elective Care Restoration Plan requires a minimum of 5% of all outpatient appointments to be on PIFU pathways by March 2029, with PIFU provided as commonplace in all acceptable pathways by 2026.
John Clarke, head of consumer options, well being at Netcall, mentioned: “This achievement displays our shut collaboration with NHS trusts throughout the nation to combine digital options by way of the NHS App.
“By embedding PIFU pathways into the NHS App, we’re serving to trusts unlock efficiencies, cut back administrative burden, and ship care that’s extra attentive to affected person wants.
“Our work with Rotherham is only one instance of how these partnerships are driving transformation at scale.”
In the meantime in April 2024, a diagnostic reserving resolution was launched at Rotherham, developed in partnership with Netcall, with the purpose of bettering affected person entry and engagement.
Netcall mixed capabilities with scientific analytics specialist C2-Ai in Could 2025 to allow coordinated choice between the NHS and native authorities, which can assist ease demand on NHS providers, stop avoidable hurt and A&E visits, and goal neighborhood interventions.
