The NHS App has its own specific integration platform with EMIS, Systmone and Vision allowing it to be much more intuitive and feature rich than third party integrations. We believe the truth is, that your patients will receive a much easier, problem free experience using the NHS App and Website.

If patients believe they are placing orders directly with you, any problems, then you will 'by default' become their point of contact for any issues that they have whilst setting up an account, placing orders, etc. These issues need to be resolved by the patient's surgery but the buck is passed to the pharmacies whom receive many complaints and countless wasted hours trying to deal with unhappy patients. The NHS App solves this problem.

We've seen many pharmacies cancel their subscriptions due to the large amounts of unnecessary work involved in keeping third party systems up to date. Often the benefits of these systems are lost due to the lack of time and the need to constantly head back to the computer, find and update records one at a time. We're seeing that lots of pharmacies are now preferring patient ordering via the NHS App and they simply receive their orders via the spine into their PMR systems.

With pharmacies making less and less money per prescription it's worth stepping back to take a look at the big picture and decide whether a platform is even likely to recover its own costs. With some providers charging as much as £100 per month for each branch the costs can be huge! The NHS App is of course FREE.

Whilst 'in theory' patient data should remain safe some platforms will force patients into allowing their most personal health information to be copied, stored and processed by the platforms themselves. The data can then be accessed by developers or contractors to see personal health information. Often development teams are situated outside of the EU and do not adhere to the same security procedures as we do. This cannot happen with the NHS App.

Whilst the idea of having your own app in the app store sounds nice, your pharmacies reputation can be damaged by receiving bad reviews due to faults in the third parties platform. Your pharmacy will receive the blame for any prescriptions which are missed or unable to be placed which despite not being your fault; will be your problem! The NHS App solves this.

What you see right now with the NHS App is just the beginning. The team has plans to add notifications when prescriptions are ready, integration with PMRs and scan to shelf functionality. It's all being developed and maintained by the NHS and FREE to your pharmacy and your patients.

We have heard rumours that pharmacies in Wales will not be able to have their own pharmacy apps that use IM1 and NHS Login to integrate with EMIS, SystmOne PFS (Patient Facing Systems). There will only be the NHS App in Wales. Your patient's data is safer within NHS systems than in 3rd Party apps. Could England be next?