Digital health

Owned and run by the NHS, the NHS App is a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services on your smartphone or tablet.

The NHS App is available now on iOS and Android. To use it you must be aged 13 and over and registered with a GP surgery in England.

Find out more here 

GP online is a national programme developed by NHS England which allows you to take control of your GP appointments through your smartphone, tablet or computer. It’s a free service available to everyone who is registered with a GP.

You can use a website or app to:

• book or cancel appointments with a GP or nurse
• order repeat prescriptions
• view parts of your GP record, including information about medication, allergies, vaccinations, previous illnesses and test results
• view clinical correspondence such as hospital discharge summaries.

This programme was created in response to patients finding the management of GP appointments and repeat prescriptions difficult and time-consuming. Each time a patients uses GP online, they help GP practice’s to spend more time on improving patient care. Five out of the eight boroughs in NW London saved a total of 1,460 days in administration time by appointments being booked through GP online.

How to book, cancel and change appointments

To book, cancel and change appointments you must first be registered with GP online services. Click here for more information on how to register.

Need help using GP online?

Training sessions will be taking place across NW London and are open to anyone who wants to know more. Please see the digital citizen education programme section below for more information.

Have you ever considered using an app to support you in managing health conditions or your general wellbeing? Maybe you have but struggled to find one that's right for you?

North West London CCG, in partnership with ORCHA, has launched a Health and Care Apps Library, which contains hundreds of independently reviewed apps to meet your needs. You can visit the library at nwlhealthapps.orcha.co.uk.

With the widespread ownership of smartphones and tablets, and the ever-increasing use of apps for anything from tracking jogging routes and providing dinner recipes, right through to monitoring heart rhythms, there is a real opportunity for apps to effectively support you in managing health conditions or your general wellbeing.

Unfortunately with over 360,000 health apps in the most common app stores (Google Play, Apple App Store etc) and with many not having any level of quality assurance, it can be incredibly difficult to find one that's appropriate, trustworthy and effective.

Our partner ORCHA has a team of people, including actively practicing clinicians, to independently review and accredit health apps against a large number of stringent criteria in areas such as clinical/professional assurance, data and privacy, and usability and accessability; giving each app an easy to understand percentage score which will help you decide whether to download it or not.

The library also gives our teams the ability to recommend apps to you during consultations, by sending a text message or email link to the app where it is appropriate and if agreed with you.

Please be assured we do not expect apps or the library to replace any services you may be using, but rather complement them. For example, you may be waiting for an appointment to discuss a sleeping issue with your health or care professional and could utilise an app to monitor your sleeping patterns. The app may even record those patterns, which you can then discuss during your appointment to help with management plans.

Please do take a look at the library and we hope you find an app that is useful for you. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Clare Gallagher at claregallagher@nhs.net. 

With over 137,000 health apps available in mobile app stores it can be hard to know which ones to trust and how to use them. To meet this challenge, a digital education programme was set-up in April 2018 to teach residents across NW London how to use digital health services. 

The goal is to empower as many residents as possible to become ‘digital citizens’ - people who can confidently use digital health services to manage their health. This can be achieved by:

1. teaching a group of volunteers how to use digital health services
2. once trained, volunteers become 'digital ambassadors' - responsible for training residents who need support using digital health services
3. arrange one hour training sessions for 'digital ambassadors' to teach residents about different apps and programs
4. once residents are trained and feel confident using digital health services, they become 'digital citizens'. 

The training sessions are free and cover the following apps and programs:

• Patient apps
• Know Diabetes website
• My COPD
• GP online
• online consultations
• smart devices/wearable’s to help manage your health.

Mobile devices are provided during the sessions to make the training interactive.

Want to get involved?

If you would like to volunteer to be a ‘digital ambassador’ and be trained so you can deliver one hour training sessions to residents in NW London, please email Digitalcitizen.nwl@nhs.net and provide the following information:

• full name
• contact mobile number and email address
• a brief description on why you are interested in digital health services.

Please write ‘digital ambassadors’ in the subject line.

Alternatively, if you would like to become a ‘digital citizen’, and learn how to use digital health services to manage your health, please email Digitalcitizen.nwl@nhs.net and provide the following information:

• full name
• contact mobile number and email address
• a brief description of what apps and programs you need support with.

Please write ‘digital citizen’ in the subject line.