More than two in five public library services (64 out of 151) in England have already signed up to offer the service with several more expected to join in the coming months.

The NHS has been working with the National Health Literacy Partnership over recent weeks to provide public and NHS libraries with toolkits and information resources to enable them to support their service users.

This is particularly important for people from more deprived communities where they may not have access to the internet or a device at home.

More than 35 million have now registered for the NHS App since its launch in December 2018.

Professor Bola Owolabi, director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, said: ‘The NHS is determined to ensure that everyone has easy access to the latest health advice, particularly those who do not own a device or the internet, as these people are also the most likely to have poor health outcomes.'

Louis Coiffait-Gunn, chief executive at CILIP,  the Library and Information Association, added: ‘The recent health literacy pilots in public libraries demonstrate that people want to be shown how to use NHS.uk and the NHS App by trained public library professionals.

‘This phased rollout through public libraries will help even more people access and make the most of their own health information online, in order to ultimately improve their health outcomes. This is particularly important for disadvantaged communities, where libraries are such important local hubs.

New features continue to be rolled out onto the NHS App, patients in many parts of the country are now able to view and manage their hospital appointments via the app, and many GP practices are now sending notifications to patients with appointment reminders and other messages relating to their care.

A full list of the public library services taking part is available here.