News & Blog
Hospital Patients Enabled to Manage Appointments Using the NHS App
Interweave data is reaching more areas through the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Care Record. Patients can now easily view, cancel and re-schedule appointments at the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust by using new functionality within the NHS App.
The ability for people to better manage their appointments has been made possible by the LLR Care Record, one of just two programme areas in the country to have put the tech in place behind-the-scenes to make this work.
This major advance for the LLR Care Record will lead to a number of benefits for local patients and services, including:
- Saving time and improving flexibility in how patients can manage their hospital appointments
- Allowing those who are digitally enabled to cancel or re-book via the NHS App, providing more staff capacity to support those who are not so comfortable using apps
- Helping reduce patient ‘did-not-attends’ at appointments
- Providing quick information to details such as appointment location and clinician name
- Reducing the strain on hospital administrative teams.
The NHS App gives people a simple and secure way of accessing a range of NHS services. It can be downloaded on smartphones or tablets via Google Play or the App store. It can also be accessed via a web browser through the NHS website.
Hayley Grafton, Chief Nursing Information Officer at UHL, said:
“As part of our wider digital transformation journey, we’ve taken a major step forward in empowering patients to take greater control
of their care. Our latest development enables patients to view, cancel and reschedule their appointments online, making it easier than ever for them to manage their interactions with our services.
“This initiative reflects the commitment and collaboration across teams to improve patient experience while driving greater operational efficiency. By introducing this functionality, we’re reducing the number of missed appointments, easing the burden on administrative staff and optimising clinical resources.
“The features we’ve introduced not only make the process more convenient for patients but also provide valuable insights into appointment patterns and service demand. This information will help us plan more effectively, ensure better use of capacity and identify areas for further improvement.
LLR Care Record programme lead, Laura Godtschalk said:
“We are thrilled to have helped enable this development within the NHS App, which will make booking and re-booking appointments much more convenient for many local people, and will help create efficiencies as a result for staff and services. We are hopeful of being able to progress plans in the next phase of this work by including features such as document sharing and adding patient questionnaires to the app’s functionality.”
The LLR Care Record joins up people’s health and care records across the NHS and local authorities using the Interweave technology. It means information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, medications and hospital admissions can be accessed by different people who are directly involved in their care. Hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers have always tended to have separate records – the LLR Care Record allows the data from these to be seen in one place.