NHS PHP Booking App: the online patient booking system

With mental health and stress issues growing among doctors and trainees in the UK, The NHS Practitioner Health Programme (PHP) has been delivering care to doctors for a number of years through its London office. Under the plan, NHS PHP would expand to offer care to GPs and trainees in England suffering from mental health and addiction issues. This care and support would include face-to-face services providing general psychiatric assessment and treatment as well as ongoing support for addiction-related health problems. 

The program would focus on providing early intervention so doctors and dentists can continue providing safe and valued care to their patients. 

As part of the new service, the NHS PHP needed to build a mobile app and an online patient booking system that provided anonymity to patients. And the app had to be ready in less than two months. 

Speed was crucial

The main benefits in selecting OutSystems focused around speed of delivery, speed of change, innovation and a great user experience. A proof of concept on the potential mobile application was completed during the procurement phase in under one week. Here’s how it works: Medical professionals need to be assessed to determine the nature and treatment they need to receive. 

 Once assessed, the individual is assigned a number of appointments and given a URL to the mobile app. The app shows a list of all practitioners in the vicinity of the medical professional seeking support. The user also has the ability to click through icons to see a photograph and a biography of the medical professional. 

The patient booking system

The online patient booking system is used by three different users: the back-office administrators of the PHP service, those who provide the treatment, and the NHS professionals that require help. There are four back-office staff who will administer the system and, initially, 90 clinicians and therapists who have made their time available via the app. 

Thanks to OutSystems and Axians, the app can be deployed on any device, allowing healthcare professionals to book consultations from iOS or Android smartphones and tablets. “If we hadn’t digitised this service, we would have needed to double our administrative staff from 4 to 8. We simply don’t have the space to house that many staff,” Lucy says. “Patients have found the system very intuitive and as a result have required minimal training.” 

Main Goals  

• Provide a consistent solution with speed of delivery and innovation. 
• Effectively manage confidentiality to all users. 
• Serve the patient through any mobile devices. 
• Create a great user experience.

The NHS Practitioner Health Programme offers free and confidential support for doctors and dentists dealing with mental, physical health, or addiction issues that may impact their work. The GP Health Service can help with issues relating to a mental health concern, including stress or depression, or an addiction problem, in particular where these might affect work. These two services support over 85,000 doctors across England.