If you are struggling to manage your healthcare at the moment, it may be ideal to download the NHS app. The NHS App gives you a simple and secure way to access a range of NHS services and take charge of your and your family’s health. Download the NHS App on your smartphone or tablet via the Google play or App store. You can also access it by logging in through the NHS website. We urge you to watch this video that highlights how others have benefited from using the NHS app.

Women often lead a busy lifestyle, taking on many different roles and so it may be difficult not only managing your own healthcare, but also the healthcare of others you may be caring for, especially for minority ethnic women. As unpaid carers, wives and mothers, the NHS app may provide more convenient accessibility when managing healthcare services, appointments, prescriptions and more. The following points below may touch upon some features of the NHS app that could benefit you particularly.

Caregivers: Women, particularly from ethnic minority backgrounds, are often carers for other family members. Whether it be looking after your own children, elderly parents and extended family, women often have the additional responsibility of care and managing health for their family as well as themselves. The NHS App can be accessed at any time of the day making it more convenient than calling a surgery, but it also helps by allowing you to manage services on behalf of someone you have caring responsibilities for. You can add a linked profile in the App by contacting your GP surgery and they will guide you through the registration. Then you can make appointments and access information in the same way on behalf of your children or other family member.

Convenience: Often women may not prioritise their own healthcare, due to caring for others or because they face barriers and struggles when trying to access healthcare services (see MWN Hub blog about MWNUK's roundtable meeting held with the government’s Cabinet Office Equality Hub and the Department of Health which raised concerns about healthcare inequalities). Using the NHS app may be more convenient for women who are busy or face barriers when accessing healthcare services and information. You can use it to book and manage appointments, view your health records, and order repeat prescriptions (particularly useful if you find yourself with additional medical needs as women often do such as accessing prescriptions related to reproductive health like contraceptives or HRT for example).

Do let us know if this information has been helpful and if you have downloaded the NHS app and find it useful. For more information, including how to download the NHS App, please visit www.nhs.uk/nhsapp