Revealed: NHS app is used to book less than 1% of GP appointments, sparking users to question its usefulness

It was supposed to revolutionise the health service by allowing patients to book a doctor’s appointment direct from their tablet or smartphone. When the NHS app was launched in 2019, then health minister Jeremy Hunt boasted it would ‘mark the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients’. She said: ‘I can use the NHS app to order repeat prescriptions – but I can’t book appointments, look up my medical records up or check any test results. An illustration taken on July 7, 2024 shows the National Health Service app displayed on a mobile phone screen When the app was first released in 2019, then health minister Jeremy Hunt boasted it would ‘mark the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients’ But once these plans were dropped, the number of people regularly using the app fell. ‘They’re worried appointments would get snapped up very quickly – and not necessarily by the people who need them most.’ Instead, Dr Salisbury argues that it is more efficient for GP surgeries to make appointment bookings over the phone – as family doctors can decide who needs to be seen soonest, as opposed to giving the next available appointment to the person who can log into the app the fastest.