GP visits? No, most patients could soon use NHS app instead

SMARTPHONE apps could become the main way patients access the NHS within a few years, according to an official report.

Health bosses want a third of inquiries to the NHS 111 helpline to be handled by a computer program by the end of 2020, the leaked document reveals.

But in time smartphones could overtake visits to the GP or hospital as the ‘primary method of accessing health services’, they predict.

Critics say websites and software can never replace a proper diagnosis by a doctor and patients’ lives may be put at risk.

The NHS has already run four 111 online pilot schemes in West Yorkshire, Suffolk, north London and the West Midlands.

The report, which assessed those schemes, said: ‘The pilots have demonstrated that a safe service can be mobilised which provides an opportunity for transfer of activity from the telephone service to online.’

The pilots, in which patients typed in their symptoms to get a diagnosis, were used by only 6 per cent of people in those areas, the majority of them under 35.

But the report, unveiled by the Health Service Journal, showed officials expect 16million inquiries a year to be handled digitally by 2020, with 37million by phone.

The move towards medical diagnosis software has consistently been met with resistance by the Royal College of GPs and the British Medical Association.

And patient groups fear elderly people who are less likely to use smartphones will be left behind by the switch.

NHS England said: ‘NHS 111 Online offers an additional route for urgent medical advice as an extra option alongside telephone advice or a face-to-face consultation. If it frees up time for staff to spend with those patients who do prefer a direct conversation, that should be a win-win.’