Test results and appointment tracking coming to NHS Wales app
Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter
Patients will be able to view test results and track appointments in the NHS Wales app as part of a major expansion announced by the Welsh Government.
Sarah Murphy, who is responsible for digital transformation in the NHS, outlined forthcoming features such as waiting list tracking – with plans to add test results in 2026.
In a statement on September 30, the mental health minister set out her ambition of making the NHS Wales app the “digital front door” for patients.
Ms Murphy told Senedd members: “This is a useful and powerful platform with a huge potential to change the way we all use and interact with our health service. It represents a fundamental shift in how we empower people to engage with their health care.”
She described the NHS Wales app as “perfectly placed to evolve into the digital front door to the NHS capable of directing us to the right service for our needs”.
‘Roadmap’
Ms Murphy told the Senedd that use of the app is steadily growing, with more than half a million downloads – equivalent to one in five adults in Wales – since its launch in 2023.
She highlighted that nearly two-and-a-half million repeat prescriptions have been ordered through the app and 2,000 people have registered their wishes on organ donation.
The minister said updates this autumn will build on a pilot in west Wales, which saw details of waiting lists for general surgery and appointment messages shared through the app.
She explained additional features – such as proxy access for carers, nominating a pharmacy for prescriptions and hospital appointment tracking – will soon be rolled out.
The mental health minister said the roadmap includes adding test results, and the ability for patients to provide feedback on their experiences, from spring 2026.
Warning of the complexities involved, she stated much depends on streamlining processes and improving data integrity elsewhere in the NHS to ensure seamless patient experiences.
‘Significant strides’
Ms Murphy said future priorities for the NHS Wales app also include bilingual design, making all waiting lists visible and integrating with commercial platforms.
On equity and inclusivity, she explained that even people without a photo ID can access the app which is available to everyone aged 16 and over who is registered with a GP in Wales.
Recognising “significant strides” across the border, she told the Senedd: “This isn’t a race between two countries, this is an opportunity to learn from one another. Our ambition is to match the functionality of the English app and then to go further.”
James Evans, the Tories’ shadow health secretary, criticised the Welsh Government’s “frustrating and, frankly, sometimes disappointing” handling of the NHS Wales app.
He told the debating chamber: “When the NHS Wales app launched… in April 2023, the NHS app in England had already been available… for nearly nine years.”
Mr Evans warned patients across Wales remain unable to do “basic things” such as check hospital appointments, see their place on waiting lists or receive their tests.
‘Catch up’
“English patients already take this for granted so we need to move faster,” he said, calling for assurances for older people and those who have poor digital connectivity in rural Wales.
Ms Murphy replied: “Even though we started later – we did – than England, I feel that in the next 12 months we’re going to really, really catch up.”
Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor warned of “previous little progress” as he argued the Welsh Government has not given digitising the NHS enough attention.
The shadow health secretary said: “The truth is that far too many of our health services continue to rely on 20th-century systems, be it paperwork or technology like the fax.”
Ms Murphy responded: “It’s about everybody being on the same page…. I feel confident now that we are making that progress, that we are all pulling in the same direction.”
Elin Jones, the Senedd’s speaker or Llywydd, joked that she managed to order her own repeat prescription through the app after receiving a security code during the statement.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Public money, public code. Why is the Welsh NHS ‘reinventing the wheel’? Why are we suffering development risk, delays and further costs, rather than leveraging existing systems, tailoring open source solutions and contributing to the global common good? As a smaller nation we should be fast and lean, like Estonia passing legislation in months to allow autonomous vehicles to be developed, commercialised & exploited. Recently had waited 18 months for a consultant’s letter our surgery had squirrelled away, English colleagues have had same/next day test results, imaging & correspondence accessible for more than a decade. We need accountability for poor… Read more »
The problem here is the lack of a common framework and the need to interact with systems across the UK. The risk is that Wales does something fast and lean that’s genuinely innovative and effective, only for England to deploy a new and worse system it can’t interact with. This is something that should’ve been standardised at a European level to allow patients to move for treatment between member states.
There’s money to be made re-inventing the wheel often providing very similar but with a few differences, software, equipment etc.
They can produce killing products e.g. NATO standard ammunition for use around the world but cannot communicate between some health boards in Wales let alone UK.