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.