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The app will be launched in Lanarkshire in December
An NHS and social care app designed to change the way patients interact with services in Scotland is to be launched next year.
MyCare.scot will give patients a digital identity and allow them to access personal information and the national service finder system. The service will eventually allow people to book appointments and check test results.
Dermatology outpatients in Lanarkshire will be first to get access to the app in December, before it is progressively rolled out across the country from April.
The full roll out will take until 2030.
Health Secretary Neil Gray said the service would revolutionise the way people manage and receive healthcare.
“Our initial launch in NHS Lanarkshire will help us ensure the MyCare app is robust, safe, secure, and meets peoples’ needs,” he said.
“I am delighted we will then see a population-wide rollout from April and we have today published a high-level summary rollout plan setting out our approach.”
Government papers show the rollout across Scotland will “take place in stages between 2025 and 2030”, while what are described as “national priority services” will not be in place on the app until 2028.
The launch of the Scottish app comes years after a similar system was introduced south of the border.
NHS England has had an app allowing patients to book appointments, order prescriptions and see their medical records since 2019.
MyCare.scot will eventually integrate with GP practices, pharmacies and social work.
‘Half-baked’ system – Conservatives
Opposition parties were critical of the timescale of the app’s rollout.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP called the app “half-baked” and asked for clarity on how it will be delivered.
“After years of promising an NHS app, the SNP have still delivered a half-baked version,” he said.
“We have repeatedly called for this to be rolled out to support patients and staff but instead the nationalists have been unable to do the basics and have squandered millions in the process.
“Patients south of the border have been able to use an app for years. Yet in SNP-run Scotland we are still living in the analogue age while everyone else has moved onto digital.”
Both Labour and Reform questioned the long roll-out time of the app.
Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: “By the time this app is finally rolled out in full, the technology will already be obsolete.
“The SNP has had two decades to modernise our NHS but we still have doctors relying on pagers, GPs using fax machines and an app that only works for one service in one health board.”
Reform MSP Graham Simpson said the pace of the app’s rollout “raises serious concerns”.
“A five-year timeline to deliver a digital front door to health and social care – starting with a limited pilot in Lanarkshire and only reaching fuller coverage by 2028 – is simply too slow given the urgency of improving access and efficiency across our health services,” he said.
“We cannot afford to wait until 2030 for a service that is already long overdue.”