The new ‘Tap the NHS App' campaign is highlighting the benefits of enabling notifications, with adverts appearing on pharmacy bags, radio channels and social media.
Users are also being encouraged to cancel or rearrange their appointments through the app and to use it to request repeat prescriptions instead of having to visit their GP practice.
The news comes as a new survey of patients across England reveals that nearly one in four people have missed an NHS appointment because they forgot or arrived too late. The survey found that 12% said they had forgotten about an appointment in the past, and 11% had arrived too late.
The latest appointment statistics also show that patients did not attend 16 million GP appointments in 2025, with no shows for 4.3% of appointments – the equivalent of an entire day of missed appointments at every GP practice in England each month.
The figures also reveal that the NHS arranged 376 million appointments at GP practices in 2025 – 8.4 million more (2.3%) than in 2024.
Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said: ‘People will often have genuine reasons for not being able to make an appointment or arriving too late, but it's really important that they let us know if possible so we can offer the appointment to someone else.
'One of the easiest ways you can reduce the risk of missing an appointment is by tapping the NHS App to turn on notifications to get reminders, so you can cancel or rearrange them if they need to.
'It's fantastic to see that GPs provided more than 8 million extra appointments for their patients in 2025, and I hope this new campaign will help increase that number even more in 2026.'
Dr Zubir Ahmed, health innovation minister, said: ‘In the busy lives we all lead, it can be easy to forget an NHS appointment or need to reorganise it at the last minute.
'That's why I'd encourage everyone to tap the NHS App and turn on notifications - so you can stay on top of your appointments and let us know if you need to reschedule. When you do, someone else can be seen instead, helping us continue to cut waiting times.'
The NHS App has more than 40 million registered users, who are able to view their GP health record, order repeat prescriptions and access a range of NHS services to manage their own care.
