The NHS App will receive an upgrade to ensure that everyone will be able to access the information they need to make informed choices about their healthcare. The improved NHS App will have a particular focus on increased accessibility, meaning that those from working class communities will have the information they need about their conditions they have or procedures they’re due to go through.
A new AI tool, My Companion, will give patients direct access to trusted health information, so there are always two experts in every consulting room: the clinician and the patient. The tool will help patients articulate their health needs and preferences, and provide information about health conditions or procedures. Additionally, the tool will help patients to ask questions, such as those they may have forgotten about or felt too embarrassed to ask.
Another feature, My Choices, will support patients finding services, from pharmacies to the best providers for certain surgeries. The app will provide a range of data on providers across the country, such as information on shortest wait times, best patient outcomes, or closest to home, allowing people to select the care that best aligns with their preferences.
These extra considerations for different preferences and needs is to end the ‘one size fits all’ approach, which often misses the distinct needs of different people, including women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds or people who live in more rural communities, among others.
Delivering a speech in Blackpool, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said “The NHS feels increasingly slow and outdated to the generation that organises their lives at the touch of a button. If you get annoyed at Deliveroo not getting your dinner to you in less than an hour, how will you feel being told to wait a year for a knee operation? A failure to modernise risks this generation walking away from the NHS, first for their healthcare, and then with their taxes.
“People won’t accept paying higher and higher taxes to fund a health service that no longer meets their needs. And the lack of control people feel over their own lives is made worse by an analogue, ‘computer says no’, NHS. We can only close the inequality and shut down this risk to the NHS’s future, through a revolution in patient power.
“The ambition of our 10 Year Health Plan is nothing less than to provide NHS patients with the same ease and convenience that’s afforded to private patients. The good news is that technology gives us the opportunity to democratise healthcare in a way never before possible. It can empower patients with choice and control and make managing our healthcare as convenient as doing our shopping or banking online.
