Appt Health

Problem

Primary care is being asked to deliver more prevention and proactive care, while capacity, continuity of care, and administrative resource are under growing pressure. For practices, the work is not just recalling patients; it is the constant, manual effort of identifying patients, applying complex eligibility rules, coordinating limited appointments, and re-contacting non-responsive patients. That work is fragmented across conditions, creating duplication, last-minute scrambles against targets, and a persistent anxiety that important care is being missed.

For patients, especially those facing deprivation, language barriers, low health literacy, or competing life pressures, the system can feel confusing and hard to navigate. Multiple single-issue invitations arrive at different times, in formats that do not fit their lives, leading to missed opportunities and widening inequalities.

When this care underperforms, the impact is felt across the health system. Avoidable disease progresses unchecked, more people develop multiple long-term conditions, and demand shifts from lower-cost prevention to higher-cost urgent and secondary care. The result is poorer outcomes, avoidable admissions, and a vicious cycle where the practices under the most pressure struggle most to deliver prevention.

Solution

Appt Health automates care coordination so planned and preventive care is timely, joined-up, and easier for patients to act on. It integrates tightly with EMIS and SystmOne, the clinical systems used by over 90% of UK general practice, so practices can run proactive care at scale without manual list-building and admin-heavy follow-up.

For each patient, Appt Health identifies eligibility across all of the planned and preventive “targets” a practice is working on, then consolidates those care needs into the smallest practical number of appointments. It interprets available capacity in real terms, understanding what each slot can be used for based on slot details and the clinician running it, so invitations match what the practice can actually deliver.

Appt Health then automates patient engagement to maximise uptake, using the right combination of channel, wording, and booking mechanism for each context. Outreach can run through the NHS App, NHS email, accessible text-message booking, SMS with booking links, letters, and automated voice calls. The result is fewer missed opportunities, less duplication, reduced administrative burden, and more equitable participation in preventive care.

Impact

• Saved time and cost: Survey data from Network 6 (Tower Hamlets) reported a 33% reduction in admin time per patient for care coordination, translating into hundreds of admin hours saved per practice, freeing staff for patient-facing support.
• Higher uptake of planned and preventive healthcare: A before-and-after study at Curo Health (West Yorkshire) increased uptake of the Targeted Lung Health Check by 18 percentage points. In Bradford, uptake among cervical screening non-responders increased by 9 percentage points.
• Reduced inequalities: In Norfolk, a trial of Appt Health’s targeted approach in lung cancer screening increased uptake by 20+ percentage points, increased the likelihood that current smokers would attend by 8 percentage points, and weakened the link between income and screening uptake.
• Increased throughput: In North Essex flu clinics, Appt Health filled clinics to match the previous year’s performance with no human admin effort. In the Curo Health case, appointment throughput increased by 48% while admin headcount reduced by one third.