OneLondon is joining up information safely and securely to deliver better health and care for Londoners. A key part of this work is giving you better access to your health and care records and more ways to interact with the people who provide that care.

The latest digital technology can support this by making sure you have the right information to access the services you need and giving you more control over your own care.

A plan for digital health and social care sets out how the NHS will deliver this, with the NHS App at the heart of these plans.

The NHS App is a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services by smartphone or any smart device, or via NHS.uk on a desktop computer. It was used extensively during the pandemic to access Covid-19 passes and has now had over 29 million sign ups in England.

What is happening in London?

Across London a range of digital tools are already being used to give you better access to your health records, more consistent information and more choice and control over your health and care.

These digital applications can be access on smartphones, tablet or computer and depending on the specific system in place they can enable you to:

• View and add information to your own health record

• View details of upcoming and past appointments

• Send a message to care teams or receive alerts about rescheduled appointments

• Complete pre-treatment questionnaires online

• View test results

• Access health advice and support while you wait for appointments

OneLondon is supporting work across London to build on these existing initiatives so you have more access to your health records and greater opportunities to manage your health and care.

Next Steps

Building on the success of the NHS App, new features are being added to support you to manage your health and care and to stay well while you wait to be seen.

From Autumn 2022, some NHS Acute Trusts in London will link their existing patient portals to the NHS App. This means information and options for managing appointments are available in one place via the NHS App enabling you to:

• View all your referrals and future secondary care appointments in one place

• Access supporting information to help prepare for your appointments

• View a single point of contact for each appointment

• Book, change and cancel all your referrals and future secondary care appointments (in trusts where this functionality already exists via their portal provider)

These new NHS App features will give you more control over your hospital appointments and how and when you access information and support.

For the NHS, patient-led booking helps to reduce missed appointments.

If you have been referred from your GP to a hospital taking part, you will receive more information from that hospital about how to access and use the NHS App.