EMIS’s Patient Access app – which has 12 million registered users in the UK – has launched a new feature that allows users to demonstrate their COVID vaccination status via their mobile phone.

Users who have already requested access to their medical record from their GP practice will now find a visible record of their COVID vaccination status on the home page of the app when they log in.  

The information – including the date of the vaccination, whether it was the first or the second vaccination, and which vaccine was used – is presented within a summary box of key activity on the app, alongside e.g. upcoming appointments or repeat medications.

EMIS Group chief medical officer Dr Shaun O’Hanlon said: “This new development makes it quick and easy for users of Patient Access to check – or prove – their COVID vaccination status.

“We are confident that it will be a practical and welcome resource for people as the government continues to relax COVID restrictions and there is an increasing need to be able to demonstrate vaccination status.

“We hope that it will also benefit GP practices – removing the pressure of requests for COVID vaccination proof and putting the data directly into patients’ hands.”

The feature will be automatically available for patients who have already had access to their detailed care record and immunisations enabled by their practice and have received their vaccination. Practices do not need to do anything further in order for these patients to be able to view their COVID vaccination status through the new feature.

The NHS requires that new patient requests to access their detailed care record and immunisations must be enabled by the practice on an individual basis; 97% of EMIS practices have the functionality in place to be able to grant these requests.