NHS App reaches 16 million users

The NHS App has reached the milestone of 16 million users, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid announced during at speech at London Tech Week today (21 September).

The surge in the number of users follows the addition of the NHS Covid Pass, the Covid-19 vaccination status service, on 17 May after joint work by NHSX and NHS Digital. According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the NHS App is currently the most downloaded free app in England.

The implications of the increase in downloads of the app include a potential rise in organ donations, said the DHSC, because 1.5 million people have now used the tool to manage their organ donation decision.

“Since the new organ donation law came into effect, our priority has been to ensure that each person knows that organ donation is still a choice,” said Alex Hudson, head of the NHS Organ Donor Register at NHS Blood and Transplant. “By enabling people to check, amend and update their organ donation decision, the NHS App makes it easier than ever for people to manage and control their own organ donation decision.”

Of the users managing their organ donation decisions through the NHS App, about 265,000 registered their organ donation for the first time via the app. Some 150,000 of these new registrations have taken place in the four months since May 2021, said the DHSC.

“This is tech saving lives,” said Matthew Gould, chief executive of NHSX. “By making it easier for people to set their preferences for organ donation, we have thousands more people whose organs might now be used to save others. We will be developing the NHS App so people can use it to drive their own care, set their own preferences and stay healthy.”

Also, almost 3.2 million repeat prescriptions have been ordered and more than 268,000 GP appointments booked via the NHS App. NHS login also offers services such as e-referral services, Covid-19 support and advice, maternity and child health services, and services to monitor and improve health and wellbeing.