Digital prescriptions in the NHS App

From 30 January 2024, patients in England can use the NHS App to view all their prescription details, order repeat prescriptions, and generate a barcode for medication collection. This is a significant step forward in improving visibility for patients, empowering them to be more actively involved in their healthcare.

The national rollout follows a successful pilot in late 2023 and now over 1 million patients have used the NHS App to view their prescriptions.

The new functionality allows patients to see:

• items prescribed  
• the prescription type (repeat or one-off) 
• who the prescribing professional is

Patients without a nominated pharmacy can also generate a prescription barcode in their NHS App that can be shown to a pharmacy for collection without a paper prescription from their GP. 

This service gives patients earlier visibility of exactly what their healthcare provider has prescribed for them and what they will collect/receive from pharmacies. 

Patients may not see a confirmed digital prescription if:

• it is prescribed but unavailable to you until a future date
• it is cancelled
• it was issued more than 6 months ago
• it was prescribed for an inpatient, to be dispensed by the hospital pharmacy, during their stay 
• their pharmacy manages their repeat medication supply on a regular basis 

Future developments for the service are now being explored, including prescription tracking to tell patients when medications are ready for collection. 

If the new prescription functionality is available in your area, you can see it in the NHS App by following these steps:

1. Tap your health on the bottom of the App and select view and manage prescriptions. 

2. Select your approved prescriptions. 

3. Select the prescription you want to view. If you do not have a nominated pharmacy you can generate a prescription barcode for collection

Benefits for patients 

• patients can see all their prescription details in one secure place, giving them greater visibility and control of their healthcare
• patients have confidence their prescription is being managed and can query issues earlier
• patients don’t need to travel unnecessarily to collect paper tokens(if they have a non-nominated pharmacy)

Benefits for prescribers 

• prescribers may see a reduction in calls from patients to query prescription status as they can see it’s being managed
• prescribers will no longer need to print prescription tokens, lowering costs and saving time
• prescribers will need to send fewer text messages with prescription ID during out-of-hours prescribing, reducing SMS costs

Benefits for dispensers 

• dispensers may see a reduction in calls from patients to query prescription status as they can see it’s being managed
• dispensers will save time as prescription queries can be handled prior to collection
• dispensers can scan digital barcodes instead of manually searching for prescriptions, saving them time

Patients can access help and support by tapping the help icon in the top right of the App or visiting: NHS App help and support.

You can also direct patients to contact the NHS App team if they need help: Contact the NHS App and account team.