New feature for app users has currently been integrated by about 1,500 pharmacies, including every branch of Boots, with another 5,000 expected to sign up in the next 12 months

The NHS App has today unveiled a new feature allowing users to track the progress of prescribed medicines in real time.

The service is currently available for those collecting prescriptions from one of 1,500 chemists across England – including every branch of Boots. A further 5,000 are expected to adopt the functionality over the coming 12 months meaning that, by this time next year, about 60% of all pharmacies will offer the updates, according to the NHS.

The new feature is intended to enable app users to obtain an up-to-the-minute status information on their prescriptions. This includes updates when medicines are “ready to collect” or, for deliveries, those that have been “dispatched by pharmacy”.

The aim of the new function is to help negate the need for many phone calls made to pharmacies – around 45% of which are from patients enquiring as to whether their prescription is ready to collect, the NHS indicated.

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Dr Vin Diwakar, clinical transformation director at NHS England, said: “We know that people want more control over how they manage their healthcare and the new prescription tracking feature in the NHS App offers exactly that. You will now get a near real-time update in the app that lets you know when your medicine is ready so you can avoid unnecessary trips or leaving it until the last minute to collect. The new Amazon-style feature will also help to tackle the administrative burden on pharmacists, so that they can spend more of their time providing health services and advice to patients rather than updates on the status of their prescriptions.”

Having first launched on New Year’s Eve 2018, the NHS App has grown to have 37.4 million registered users – some 11.4 million of which log in each month, according to the NHS. One of the software’s most-used features is ordering repeat prescriptions, with 5.5 million such requests made last month – a 41% increase on the 3.9 million figure recorded in April 2024.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said: “If patients can track the journey of their food shop, they should be able to do the same with their prescriptions. By harnessing the power and efficiency of modern tech, we’re saving patients time, driving productivity and freeing up hardworking pharmacists to do what they do best – helping patients, not providing status updates. This is just one example of our mission to shift the NHS from analogue to digital as we continue to push our health service into the modern age through our Plan for Change.”

The addition of the medicine-tracking feature comes after the NHS App previously added the ability for users to collect prescriptions via a digital barcode – without having to specify a nominated pharmacy. More functionality is scheduled to be introduced in the coming months, including plans to “expand to offer patients more appointment options and greater choice”, the NHS said.