More than 90% of GP-registered citizens cannot currently access their medical records online
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During its first year of availability, just 0.41% of the eligible population registered for the NHS app.
After more than 15 months in development, the app was made publicly available on 31 December 2018 via the Apple App Store and Google Play platform.
Anyone over the age of 13 registered with a GP surgery in England can register for the app and, by the end of 2019, a total of 212,633 people had done so.
With 60.43 million citizens registered at English GPs, this means the adoption rate of the app stands at just 0.41% after its first year on release.
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An even smaller percentage – about 0.1% – use the app each month to view their medical records.
Many GP surgeries also offer their own portals through which patients can book appointments and view medical records.
The total proportion of the eligible population who are able to view their patient record digitally stands at 8.66%, according to health minister Edward Argar.
He added that personal medical records were accessed digitally – either via the NHS app or a surgery’s own portal – a cumulative total of a million times in December 2019.
“The Department [of Health and Social Care] is committed to ensuring that citizens using the National Health Service are able to access high-quality, effective healthcare services that are responsive to patients’ need,” Argar added. “Digital tools, such as the NHS App, are able to support people to access their medical records.”
The health minister was answering a written parliamentary question from Jeremy Hunt who, in his time as health secretary, was responsible for launching the NHS app.
NHS Digital announced earlier this year that about 95% of GP surgeries have connected their records and appointment-booking systems to the app.
