Patients to be able to nominate a pharmacy on NHS App more easily from July 2025

Patients should be able to nominate which pharmacy they want their electronic prescriptions sent to via the NHS App more simpler from July 2025, according to NHS England.

Speaking at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress 2025, held in London on 9 and 10 May 2025, Rahul Singal, chief pharmacy and medicines information officer at NHS England, told delegates that a redesign of the app that would allow this functionality was expected by July 2025.

Singal added that NHS England was also working towards several prescription-based user features for the app by early 2026, including reminders to order repeat prescriptions and alerts when prescriptions are ready to collect.

Currently, around 7.5 million patients can track their prescription status digitally through the app, which is a figure that is expected to “grow exponentially over the next six months”, said Singal.

All users can already use the app to order repeat prescriptions and to generate a barcode for collecting their medication.

In January 2024, NHS England updated app functionality to allow users without a nominated pharmacy to use the barcode to collect their prescription from any pharmacy.

“What we delivered [in 2024] was the ability to track your prescription; this was a key thing that patients asked for,” Singal said, adding that updates to the app’s prescription functionality would help reduce the number of phone calls to pharmacies and general practice, as well as offering reassurance to patients.

“There are so many other opportunities we can have in the app, and we’re trying to do a discovery piece over the next year to almost reimagine the ordering of medicines,” he said.

“What we want to first do is try and make sure we make a really seamless experience for primary care.”

In February 2024, The Pharmaceutical Journal reported that growth in the number of patients choosing distance-selling pharmacies through the electronic prescription service had slowed during 2023 and 2024, following a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commenting on the developments, Darren Powell, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society digital expert advisory group, said: “These enhancements to the NHS App represent a significant step forward in reducing the operational burden on pharmacy teams and enhancing the digital journey for patients.

“Features such as prescription alerts and repeat medicine reminders have the potential to streamline the medicines requesting process, empowering patients to take ownership of their health and reducing avoidable in-person and telephone queries. This will allow pharmacy teams to focus more of their time on delivering clinical care and improving patient outcomes.

“Introducing a clearer and more accessible pharmacy nomination process will support patients in making informed decisions around their choice of dispenser/pharmacy and help ensure medicines are received in a timely and safe manner.

“Collectively, these developments will improve patient access, increase self-management capability and reinforce the critical role of community pharmacy within the wider primary care system.”

• This article was amended on 14 May 2025 to clarify that the changes to the NHS App will make nominating a pharmacy easier for users