“It Should Be Easy… But It Isn’t”: Navigating
the NHS App With Low Digital Skills

But now, trying to do something as basic as booking a GP appointment or ordering a prescription feels like cracking a code I was never taught.

This morning was another typical one: wake up early, phone in hand, trying to ring the surgery at 8 a.m. sharp. The line’s busy, again. It always is. I hear people say “Just use the NHS App — it’s easy.” And I wish it was. For some, maybe. For me? It’s a maze.

I’ve got more than one email address. One I use on my phone. One I use on the computer. Different passwords for each — and don’t ask me which goes with what. Half the time I’m locked out before I even begin. When the NHS App asks me for my email login, I freeze. Which email? Which password? I try. I fail. I give up.

And that’s the real frustration. Not just the app itself, but the feeling it gives you — like you’re falling behind, like the world’s moving on without you. The pressure to be digital isn’t just about keeping up — it’s about accessing healthcare. That’s scary.

Someone at the Digital Health Day told me: “You can just Google the NHS App at home and log in on your computer.” And maybe that’s true. Maybe I’ll try. But right now, here in the community centre, I’m stuck. Stuck between knowing what I need and not knowing how to get there.

I’m not lazy. I’m not uninterested. I’m just overwhelmed.

The NHS app could be brilliant — booking appointments, ordering prescriptions, even viewing health records. But for people like me, low on digital confidence and high on worry, it’s not the technology that’s the problem. It’s the lack of support. The assumption that everyone just “gets it.”

What I need isn’t just instructions — it’s patience. It’s time. It’s someone to sit next to me and say, “Let’s do this together.”