NHS Direct app now available in Apple store

iPhone users are now able to download the new NHS Direct app following the successful launch of the Andriod version last week.

The health app is now available from the Apple store and gives users access to official health information and advice.

Thirty-seven symptom checkers are featured as part of the app and users have to answer questions about the symptoms they are experiencing to receive a diagnoses.

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The app then provides self-care advice or alternatively advises the user if they should seek further medical assistance.

If this is the case the app is linked to the NHS Direct telephone service and it can generate a call back from an NHS Direct Nurse Advisor.

Symptom checkers have already proved to be popular online tools and the NHS is hoping that by launching the apps people will be encouraged to self-asses and treat their symptoms based on clinically-proven medical advice.

As a result they are hoping people will be less inclined to use already overstretched local NHS services such as hospital A&E departments or GP surgeries for conditions which aren’t an emergency.

Since its launch on Thursday, the Android version of the app has already been downloaded 1,774 times.

Roger Donald, the associate Director of Multichannel at NHS Direct said of the apps launch: “The NHS Direct app has been developed in response to the popularity of this new mobile channel and to the specific needs of the growing number of patients who prefer to access health advice online.”