Free NHS app tells you A&E waiting times

The NHS has launched a free phone and tablet app that aims to ease the pressure on Accident & Emergency units by showing how busy they are. It’s hoped this will prompt people to visit other treatment centres.

Nhsquicker (see screenshot), available on Android and IOS, shows waiting times and how many people need treatment. It also provides these details for other medical services, including GP surgeries, pharmacies, dentists, opticians and sexual health clinics. It uses your current location to calculate how long it would take you to reach them.

It has been launched by the Health and Care IMPACT Network, a collaboration between the NHS across Devon and Cornwall and academics from the University of Exeter. If the trial is successful, the app could be released nationwide.

Dr Nick Mathieu, who works in the emergency department at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We hope this will improve things for patients, as they may be able to receive the care they need more quickly and perhaps closer to home than they realise”.

The app is part of the NHS’S long-term plan to digitise services to make them more efficient. Several trials in 2017 tested how technology could be used, including an artificially intelligent app to replace the 111 non-emergency number, and video consultations with GPS. But senior doctors have warned that the rise of technology will alienate some vulnerable people. Professor Helen Stokes-lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPS, said that video appointments won’t help “older patients and those living with more complex needs”.