NHS App Management Information - April 2025

The NHS App statistics publication focuses on providing high level information covering usage of the NHS App, and volumes of interactions with services provided through the NHS App. The aim is for these data to be used to inform decisions made relating to the NHS App, and about health and care services with existing or potential services provided through the app.  

Figures published should either be in the form of a usage statistic within the reporting month, or a cumulative count of users registered to the app or a specific service at the end of the reporting month. 

This dimension covers the degree to which the statistical product meets user need in both coverage and content. 

The NHS App statistics publication focuses on providing high level information covering usage of the NHS App, and volumes of interactions with services provided through the NHS App. The aim is for these data to be used to inform decisions made relating to the NHS App, and about health and care services with existing or potential services provided through the app.  

Figures published should either be in the form of a usage statistic within the reporting month, or a cumulative count of users registered to the app or a specific service at the end of the reporting month. 

Service usage statistics are collected through checkpoints that trigger when users interact with elements, or access specific links, within the NHS App.  

There are reporting periods for data covering specific services where failures in the trigger process have been identified, impacting accurate collection due to interruption or inflated figures for partial or full months. For data that are impacted by these issues, an advisory note will be included in a “Notes” section within the report file, detailing the issue, the scale of the impact, and the affected time period. In instances where data can be estimated, the methodology will be included in an advisory note, and affected time periods and metrics will be listed. 

This dimension covers, with respect to the statistics, their proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value. 

Data is published at Integrated Care Board (ICB) granularity, as a snapshot of the given month. Minor boundary changes will be included in current snapshots but will not be retrospectively applied to historic data. If this occurs, a note will be included in the “Notes” worksheet in the report file. 

Over April 2025 the data collected contained 14 practice codes where a responsible ICB commissioner was unable to be assigned in the NHS App activity aggregation process. Of these practices, one is located in Northern Ireland, 11 are located in the Isle of Man, and a small amount of activity was assigned to 2 codes that are not valid and return no information. Due to their location, these practices would not be expected to have an assigned ICB commissioner. To align with total activity NHS App reporting figures, activity and logins from these practices have been aggregated under an “Unknown” category for the ICB and NHSE Region columns.

Timeliness refers to the time gap between publication and the reference period. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and actual publication dates. 

The reports are published monthly, with the data relating to activity totals covering the previous full calendar month, and cumulative totals being calculated at the end of the final day of the calendar month. 

Data will be published on or before the fourth Friday of each month

Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice. 

Definitions for measures will be included in a metadata file published alongside each report. Definitions will continue to be developed, and further detail will be provided in future editions of this publication when needed. 

Coherence is the degree to which data which have been derived from different sources or methods but refer to the same topic are similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain. 

Usage data has been collected through the NHS App since its launch in December 2018. The volume and methodology of data collections, and the number of services and their widespread availability, has changed quite frequently since the introduction of the app. Due to these frequent changes, it is not always possible or appropriate to compare usage of services over time. 

We would recommend users compare across full years, rather than comparing month to previous month, or quarter to previous quarter, due to the large impact seasonality has in NHS App usage patterns. For example, comparing December 2023 to December 2024, or 2023 Q1 to 2024 Q1 is appropriate. 

Parties using these data must be aware that statistics published relate to activity taken by users within the NHS App. Any changes made in the systems that the app feeds won’t be recorded or accounted for within the statistic. 

Due to some of the app links directing to external providers or pages, some statistics will relate solely to the number of users who left the NHS App to the third-party service provider. Care must be taken not to interpret this as a user fully interacting with the service to completion, as no information is included that would reveal what the user went on to do after accessing the link to that service. 

When reporting on population rated NHS App statistics, it is important to include the context that the NHS App is only accessible to patients registered to an English GP practice who are age 13 and older. The precedented standard for national reporting is to rate against the ONS Census population for England where single year age is 13 and above. The precedented standard for Regional and ICB level population rated metrics aren’t easily derived from Census data, so are usually sourced from the Patients Registered at GP Practice publication, where single year age is 13 and above, for English GP practices that have an assigned ICB commissioner. As noted in the Patients Registered at a GP practice Data Quality Statement, the population denominator will be inflated over the ONS figure due to the list inflation issues reported under the Accuracy heading, so this should be appropriately caveated when presenting these rated figures. 

This dimension describes the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the statistical output. 

These data are collected automatically through the NHS App as it is used and require no manual entry by third parties. Therefore there is minimal additional performance cost, and no respondent burden. 

The procedures and policy used to ensure sound confidentiality, security and transparent practices. 

Data are aggregated to a sufficient granularity to prevent App user concern, with no demographic data included that could possibly facilitate user identification. There is no risk of publishing any user identifiable information.