The online hospital, which was launched in September and is expected to see its first patients in 2027, is designed to provide patients across the country with faster access to healthcare from their own homes.
Professor Stella Vig, national clinical director for elective care at NHS England, said: ‘The NHS's new online hospital will see a huge shift in the way we deliver care, giving patients the option to have an online appointment with a specialist anywhere in England.'
NHS Online is expected to deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5m virtual appointments and assessments in its first three years – four times more than an average NHS trust.
It will first build and scale tried-and-tested innovations already in place across the country such as digital prescriptions and online test results, with millions of patients already accessing virtual appointments and using the NHS App to manage their care.
Tests, scans or procedures will continue to take place at healthcare sites closer to patients' homes, while clinicians will be able to review their notes remotely in order to streamline the process and allow people to move quickly from referral to treatment to follow-up care.
Nuffield Trust director of research and policy, Dr Becks Fisher, welcomed the online focus on women's health, highlighting its potential impact on tackling economic inactivity.
Dr Fisher noted ‘tricky questions' remained about implementation, however, highlighting the challenge of managing workforce resources to boost NHS capacity without impacting face-to-face time.
The research director said dated NHS IT infrastructure could also pose challenges to sharing information such as scan results across organisations.
‘Some patients may end up needing in person care after going down the online hospital route, so the NHS will need to ensure smooth transitions between services, avoiding leaving patients with a snakes and ladders system which lands them back at square one with their GP,' Dr Fisher said.
She added no new money had been announced for the service.
