The challenge
As part of the national Primary Care Access Recovery Plan (PCARP) programme of work issued by NHS England, NECS was commissioned by NENC ICB to provide support to GPs within the area. Recognising the diverse needs and challenges faced by GPs, NECS set up the PCDSH to support the PCARP work delivered in 2024-25.
The national PCARP programme set out targets for increasing the utilisation of the NHS App in Primary Care services:
- Increase NHS App record views from 9.9m to 15m per month.
- Increase NHS App repeat prescription orders from 2.7m to 3.5m per month.
As of April 2024, the NENC ICB’s registered patient population was 3,217,928, approximately 5% of the national total. NENC ICB’s monthly average for NHS App record views and repeat prescription orders was 909,193 and 207,678, respectively. Therefore, the fair share increase for the NENC ICB is 5%, resulting in an average monthly increase of 255,000 record views and 40,000 repeat prescription orders. Achieving this would lead to an average 1.16m record views and 247K repeat prescription orders per month via the NHS App.
Our response
As part of the PCDSH delivery of PCARP support, NECS Project Manager Alex Mills created an Implementation Plan for the NHS App that consolidates national promotional materials. The plan includes guidance, actions, and recommendations to help practices effectively promote the NHS App in practice or online.
The plan was intended for distribution to practices through email for independent review, a Microsoft Teams session for joint review with the NECS Project Manager, or an on-site session for more in-depth discussion.
Outcomes
As of February 2025, the PCDSH has provided 43 support engagements with GP practices in the NENC ICB area:
- 21 – light touch via email or phone call.
- 16 – intermediate sessions via Microsoft Teams.
- 4 – Intense in-depth discussion at practice.
Within each engagement or practice support, the NHS App Implementation Plan was distributed to the practice by the PCDSH team. As a result of the support provided by the team across the year, the NENC area achieved their contributions to their fair share of the NHS App national PCARP targets:
- NHS App record views increased by 631,303, reaching an average of 1.54m per month, 247.6% above NENC ICB’s target.
- NHS App repeat prescription orders increased by 62,362, averaging 270,040 per month, 155.9% above NENC ICB’s target.
As a result of this achievement, the NENC ICB area has realised a few benefits for their practices and registered patient population:
- Increase percentage of patents signing up for NHS App to enable them to take ownership and control of their health record if they choose to do so.
- Improved patient experience as patients will be able to access their health record online at a time convenient to them.
- Improved practice efficiency by streamlining work processes to adapt access to patient records to include the digital electronic patient record.
“I think that the NHS App Implementation Plan is really helpful document that provides a structure to support, making changes and promoting the app to patients.”