‘Amazon-style’ prescription tracking goes live in NHS App for millions of patients

Millions of patients can now track their prescriptions thanks to the rollout of a new feature in the NHS App helping to reduce unnecessary calls and visits to pharmacies.

NHS England today announced that nearly 1,500 high street chemists – including every Boots in England – are now offering the service, which enables patients to check on their prescriptions through real-time “Amazon-style” updates.

Almost half (45%) of phone calls to community pharmacies are estimated to be from patients asking if their prescription is ready, with the new service helping to free up time for pharmacists to provide advice to patients.

Instead of phoning up, patients can instead track their prescriptions by logging in to the app to see if their medicines are “ready to collect” or “dispatched by pharmacy” if they are being delivered.

The service is expected to be made available to nearly 5,000 more pharmacies over the next 12 months – covering 60% of those in England.