The National Health Service Application (NHS APP)
The new version of the Health Centre website gives the NHS App as a means of ordering repeat prescriptions. It can however do far more than this for you! Continuing with detailing the digital ways that we can interact with the practice and indeed take more control of our health, lets look in more details at the NSH Application, better known as the NHS App.
You can use use the NHS App to:
- Get advice about coronavirus– get information about coronavirus and find out what to do if you think you have it.
- Order repeat prescriptions.
- See your available medicines, request a new repeat prescription and choose a pharmacy for your prescriptions to be sent to.
- Get health advice- search trusted NHS information and advice on hundreds of conditions and treatments, and get instant advice or medical help near you.
- View your medical record- securely access your GP medical record, to see information like your allergies and your current and past medicines as well as any vaccinations you have received.
- Register your organ donation decision- choose to donate some or all of your organs and check your registered decision.
- Find out how the NHS uses your data- choose if data from your health records is shared for research and planning.
Other services in the NHS App
If your GP surgery or hospital offers other services in the NHS App, you may be able to:
- message your GP surgery, doctor or health professional online
- consult a GP or health professional through an online form and get a reply
- access health services on behalf of someone you care for
- view your hospital and other healthcare appointments
- view useful links your doctor or health professional has shared with you.
Keeping your data secure
After you download the app, you will need to set up an NHS login and prove who you are. The app then securely connects to information from your GP surgery.
Setting up your login is straight forward if a little lengthy! The process is intuitive and as long as you follow the steps exactly as laid out you should be finished in about 15 minutes, however do not despair there are guides available to help you on your way!
The NHS website gives you all the information on the App, it also has pages on setting up your login.
A more user friendly version can be found here. This is a project funded by the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to increase visibility and use of the NHS App.
I understand from the practice that only 18% of repeat prescriptions are ordered digitally! It seems that most of us would prefer to spend time waiting to be put through on the phone. I will look into this process in more detail in my next article.
Bob Meades
Editor