The NHS App: groundbreaking technology expands its reach
ACE has been a strategic partner in developing the patient-centred app and rolling out new features for secondary care across England.
As the popularity of the NHS App continues to grow - over 34 million people have signed up to date - the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) remains a strategic partner in a digital healthcare transformation which is bringing new features for secondary care to patients using the NHS App, the digital ‘front door’ to the NHS.
The NHS App gives patients more direct control over their healthcare, including being able to view and manage their hospital appointments, helping to reduce pressure on stretched health services and make the best use of clinicians’ time.
These app features are live in 88 trusts at the time of writing, covering 89% of England’s population and with an aim to reach over 100 trusts by the end of the current financial year.
Giving patients more control
ACE’s partnership history on this key health programme goes back to January 2022 when work – with supplier Servita – began with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. A proof-of-concept (PoC) aggregator for application programming interfaces (APIs) was built and developed into a beta within three months.
In this first phase, ACE was key to surfacing data from multiple hospital patient admission systems and Patient Engagement Portals (PEPs), developing a sophisticated system of APIs to gather and aggregate this data and accelerating delivery speed by working as an integrated part of the NHS team. This provided patients with the ability to view their hospital referrals and appointments in one place.
A second phase saw further features added to the app, including being able to receive notifications and messages, complete pre-consultation questionnaires and access documents relating to appointments. This benefits trusts, reducing costs by sending out fewer SMS messages and paper documents to patients.
In the latest phase of the app’s development, ACE has been instrumental in helping to continue developing new features while ensuring stable service is maintained.