The health service has previously launched two digital repositories of approved applications, the latter of which was closed down in 2021, but ministers have indicated that officials are exploring options

Four years after the NHS shut down its previous library of approved apps, government and the health service are examining the possibilities of opening a similar platform, a minister has indicated.

The NHS previously opened an online platform bringing together a collection of approved healthcare apps in 2013. After this was closed in 2015, another library began operating in 2017 – but this was also decommissioned in 2021.

Guidance published subsequently on the NHS.UK website says: “We have decided to close the NHS Apps Library and instead we will link to recommended apps throughout the NHS website. We want to make our recommendations as helpful as possible to everyone who comes to the NHS website for advice and guidance.”

In a recent written parliamentary question from Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey – who has this month been readmitted to the Labour Party after serving a six-month suspension as an independent member – the Department of Health and Social Care was asked whether the “department will commission a review into improving the centralised NHS signposting for mental health support; and if [it] will make an assessment of the potential merits of reopening the NHS App Library”.

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In response, care minister Stephen Kinnock revealed that discussions are already ongoing between government and NHS to examine the potential of a similar platform.

He said: “We are working with NHS England to explore solutions that would more effectively meet some of the objectives around an app library, including building awareness of evidenced digital health technologies tailored effectively to the needs of different audiences, including commissioners, clinicians, and patients.”

The previous iteration of the library divided programs into three tiers, including formally certified ‘NHS-approved’ apps alongside those – classed as ‘NHS-connected’ – that had been ratified to connect to NHS systems, enabling users to transfer their information. The third tier was comprised of a wider directory of ‘Health apps’ without the health service kitemark.

The launch of the certified repository formed part of a wider range of measures intended to support the objective of “helping people manage their own health”.

“The way that people use services has changed over the past ten years, often expecting to have the option of accessing services online or by telephone,” said NHS guidance published at the time. “Over the next two years the NHS will make very significant steps towards increasing how its services can be accessed online, whilst remembering that healthcare is about people and that many patients want and need the reassurance of a real person to talk to face to face.”