Scotland told to learn from England's NHS ‘doctor in pocket'
The prime minister promised patients south of the border 'a doctor in your pocket' as part of plans to make the technology, which has already been in use in England for more than six years, an 'indispensable' part of everyday life.
Wes Streeting, the UK health secretary, has said the technology will become 'critical national infrastructure' for Britain, offering health advice and including detailed digitised patient records and potentially live video chats with consultants and bespoke health coaching.
In contrast, an app for the Scottish health service, first announced in 2021, is not expected to launch on a trial basis until December. Its functionality will be severely restricted initially, when its sole practical purpose will be allowing dermatology patients in just one area, Lanarkshire, to receive appointment letters.
The lack of progress in Scotland has been branded a 'national embarrassment' with the SNP facing questions over why it did not seek to adapt England's technology for the devolved health service, rather than insisting on developing its own version.
Stephen Kerr, the Tory MSP, said: 'The Scottish government's approach to delivering a simple NHS app for patients has been expensive, incompetent and frankly insulting to those who just want reliable access to their own health records and services.
'They have spent £17 million with nothing meaningful delivered except delays, excuses and a narrow pilot limited to one specialty in one health board.
'Instead of wasting yet more time and money reinventing the wheel for separatist political reasons, ministers should work constructively with the UK government to give people in Scotland access to the NHS app that is already up and running in England.
'Patients deserve joined-up systems that work — not a vanity project stuck in perpetual development.'
The NHS app in England, which has 35 million users, already allows patients to book appointments at GP services, order prescriptions and manage hospital appointments. Denmark introduced a digital system two decades ago.
This week, Starmer told an audience of frontline NHS staff in east London that private industries had revamped their offerings dramatically around apps and that the NHS should be no different.
He said: 'We will transform the NHS app so it becomes an indispensable part of life for everyone. It will become, as technology develops, like having a doctor in your pocket, providing you with 24-hour advice, seven days a week.'
The 'supercharged' version of the app is promised in England by 2028, with other goals including video calls with consultants, AI advice on symptoms and personalised lifestyle advice and health coaching.
Meanwhile, the app in Scotland, the functionality of which remains unclear, is not set to fully roll out nationally until 2030.
Chris Williams, vice chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland, said that although 'we have waited a long time,' he remained supportive of the approach taken by Scotland to develop its own app, citing the 'significant differences' in how NHS systems and records are structured.
He said he did not believe it would be possible for the NHS England app to 'simply be used in the Scottish healthcare setting' and that different priorities would make it 'less applicable'.
He added: 'There are lessons to be learned from the English example and avoiding creating extra pressure in general practice, especially in regard to managing the lifelong records of patients, that in some cases will contain historical information with language and terminology that belongs in the past.
'People in Scotland currently have 24/7 access to information about health and services via the NHS Inform website. We understand that there is a review taking place of the NHS Inform website that will lead to improvements to ensure that information is relevant, up-to-date and checked by subject matter experts.'
A Scottish government spokesman said: 'The NHS England app was developed to support England's NHS trusts and is configured specifically to their IT infrastructure. We have, however, already engaged extensively with NHS England and with other health systems, to explore how we can take learning from other approaches in developing our service.
'Scotland's planned online app is for both health and social care and we will launch it in Lanarkshire by the end of 2025. National rollout will commence through 2026, and we will publish a national rollout plan later this summer.'
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