One of the first comments Matt Hancock made as new minister for health is that more NHS Apps were on the way.  He stated : “”The NHS needs to be more convenient for you, but also to help clinicians so that doctors’ and nurses’ lives are easier.” A new NHS App prototype has just been announced.

The New NHS APPs

It has been announced this week that the NHS are working on a new App. The idea behind the new NHS Apps is to make life easier for patients to do a variety of everyday things. These include:

• Access to your medical records
• GP appointment booking
• Repeat prescription ordering
• Changing organ donation preferences
• Changing data sharing preferences
• Skype your GP instead of going to the surgery

Other functionality available includes end of life preferences, where you would like to be cared for, and your religious beliefs so these can be taken into account after death.

The NHS is referring to this as an “ advances statement “ , this may also include whether you wish to refuse treatment in certain circumstances and power of attorney.

At moment the plan is this information will go to your GP and not the NHS database, so one does have to wonder what the next stage will be.

The real challenge is how all this information is going to be pooled together to provide useful and meaningful information to the NHS to streamline processes, enhance decision making and having reliable and usable information to hand that changes the way the NHS operates.

The other challenge will be how NHS Digital will get all the NHS systems to talk/integrate with each other.  Another challenge will be the user experience. How much information will the user have to be input and how long will it take? Will the app be user friendly and easy to navigate?

When will we see the new NHS Apps?

It is expected that testing will start with a selected number of GP practices before the end of the year, starting with 2000 patients and ten GP practices. Areas with high Wi-Fi and strong internet will be targeted for the testing. It is reported that the general public may see a scaled down version of the App by early next year.

A year after a full roll out of the new NHS Apps, it is estimated that there will be 16 million users registered for online GP services, 3 million GP appointments being booked and 7 million prescriptions being ordered through the new app.

Nursing Personnel Nurse Agency App

Nursing Personnel nursing agency have a free App available to all registered agency workers. The App allows you to view your compliance information that the agency holds on you. This is the information the NHS frameworks audit, so you see what the agency sees. By having this information available easily you can ensure your file is 100% up to date and can view anything this that is going to expire like a DBS check or mandatory training. By ensuring file is kept up to date means you will always be able to work and accept an agency nurse shift when you want to work.

The App will also let you update your availability, request shifts, you can view all available shifts on Nursing Personnel database, giving you choice of what agency nurse jobs you want to choose.

Agency nurses can search the hundreds of nursing agency jobs we have available by post code, so you can view the nurse jobs closest to your home.

The app lets you control the way you wish to work. The app is available free for apple and android phones. To view the app download it free from the App store or Android app store.

For more information on Nursing Personnel nursing agency click here or call us on 033 3043 6779.