From ordering our shopping and checking our bank account to helping us manage our health and wellbeing, digital help is part of our everyday, even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are many apps and services that can get you the help you need without having to leave your home including a dedicated NHS app from which you can view your GP health record, order repeat prescriptions, book appointments or access health advice – something over 400,000 people in the county are already doing.
More specialist apps are available from a dedicated library for people living in Dorset.
This is available via the Stay Well Dorset website, and in the last year it has seen:
- Over 8,000 searches for apps to support with ‘Mental Health’
- Over 2,000 searches for related terms like depression and stress
- Over 1,800 app downloads to support with Mental Health
- 1,300 app downloads specifically for Stress, Depression or Anxiety
- The first 500+ download month.
A recent campaign to raise awareness of high blood pressure (hypertension) saw thousands of people download the BP@Home app, a mobile app-based service which enables people to take their blood pressure readings in the comfort of their own home and share them directly with their clinical team.
6,000 people in Dorset are monitoring their blood pressure using BP@Home, which has led to 400,000 blood pressure measurements being taken outside of general practice.
Figures show it could lead to a reduction in hypertension related appointments by as much as 93% within two years. And has saved an estimated 5729 kg in carbon emissions due to a reduction in people having to travel.
For more information on digital help visit www.staywelldorset.nhs.uk/digital.
