Why Primary Care Needs a Digital Health Boost – and How Technology Is Quietly Making a Difference

Primary Care is under pressure—but help is at hand

Let’s face it: running a GP practice today isn’t easy.

Between growing patient demand, fewer clinicians, and mountains of admin, primary care teams are stretched thin. Waiting times are up, and burnout is a real threat. Practices want to offer great care—proactively, compassionately, and efficiently—but doing so with ageing systems and manual processes often feels like swimming upstream.

That’s where digital health comes in. It’s not a magic wand, but when done right, it can give practices the space, support, and tools they need to breathe easier and focus on what really matters: their patients.

One area where we’re already seeing this happen? Patient recalls.

The everyday brilliance of better systems

If you’ve ever tried to run a flu jab campaign or call in patients for a chronic condition review, you’ll know how time-consuming it can be. Spreadsheets. Phone calls. Letters. More phone calls. Then follow-ups. Then no-shows...

It’s important work—but incredibly manual. And in many practices, it’s down to just a handful of staff juggling everything on top of their day jobs.

That’s why a growing number of surgeries are using automated recall tools to help them do it smarter.

There’s one in particular—built by a team who’ve spent time embedded with NHS practices—that quietly works behind the scenes, identifying patients who need to be contacted, sending out reminders via multiple channels, tracking who’s booked and contacting those who haven't.

What digital health really means in primary care

Let’s strip back the jargon for a second.

Digital health in this context isn’t about flashy wearables or AI diagnosing rare diseases. It’s about practical tools that help real teams do real work more easily.

Think:

• Text messages that remind patients to come in for important checks.

• Dashboards that show who’s overdue for care, so nothing slips through the cracks.

• Seamless links to EMIS or SystmOne, so admin staff don’t have to copy-paste data ten times over.

This is the kind of tech that’s gaining traction—not because it’s trendy, but because it makes a genuine difference to daily workflows.

Why now?

We’re at a tipping point.

The NHS is asking primary care to do more: from improving cancer screening rates to catching hypertension early and managing long-term conditions better. That’s a big ask when practices are already full to bursting.

But there’s also support for doing things differently. National strategies are encouraging automation. Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are looking for scalable tools. And best of all, patients are often more digitally engaged than we give them credit for.

A quick, friendly text reminder can go a long way. One practice we spoke to started sending automatic recall messages for diabetic reviews and saw their uptake shoot up within a few weeks—with less admin time and fewer missed appointments.

It’s small wins like this, repeated across the country, that start to shift the dial.

The flu season story (and other everyday examples)

Let’s take a familiar challenge: flu season.

Every year, practices mobilise to contact hundreds (sometimes thousands) of patients, invite them in, chase those who haven’t responded, and report progress to the ICB.

With an automated system, it’s easier to:

• Send targeted invites to at-risk patients.

• Track who’s booked and who hasn’t.

• Re-invite people at the right intervals—without the manual legwork.

Practice's shared how their recall campaign success has jumped to ~60%, while taking the admin pressure off. That freed up time for more complex clinical care, and patients appreciated the gentle reminders too.

And this isn’t just about flu. The same approach is being used for:

• Smear test reminders.

• Asthma and COPD reviews.

• NHS Health Checks.

• Childhood immunisations.

It’s the sort of behind-the-scenes tech that doesn’t shout about itself—but really moves the needle.

Making recalls easier isn’t just admin—it’s proactive care

It’s easy to think of recalls as a ‘nice-to-have’. But they’re at the heart of preventive care.

Catching things early. Keeping conditions under control. Avoiding crises. That’s the holy grail for sustainable healthcare.

But if patients don’t come in for reviews or screenings—or worse, if we forget to invite them—we miss those crucial opportunities.

That’s why digital recall tools matter. Not just because they save admin time (although they absolutely do), but because they help practices reach more patients, more consistently, without the chaos.

Designed for GP & Primary Care life

Of course, for any tech to actually work in primary care, it has to tick a few boxes:

• Fits in with existing systems like EMIS.

• Respects patient preferences (like opting out of texts).

• Keeps data safe, following NHS guidelines.

• Doesn’t take weeks to set up or learn.

The recall tool we keep hearing about from practices? It was designed with all that in mind. The team behind it worked closely with NHS staff to build something that feels familiar—not foreign. Something that actually saves time, not adds another task to the to-do list.

And because it's modular, practices can start small—maybe just with flu or asthma reviews—and scale up when they’re ready.

It’s not all about tech—people still matter

We should be clear: digital health doesn’t replace human care.

Patients still value face-to-face appointments. GPs still need time to build trust, listen, and diagnose. Admin staff are still the heartbeat of any surgery.

But when smart tools can take on the repetitive tasks—like sending reminders, filtering patient lists, or tracking appointment responses—it frees up headspace. It gives teams room to breathe. It lets people do what people do best.

And in a time where every minute counts, that can make all the difference.

The big picture: where are we headed?

Looking ahead, the hope is that digital tools like this will be part of a wider, more connected system. Imagine:

• Automatic recalls tailored to each patient’s needs and preferences.

• ICS-wide programmes that use local data to run targeted campaigns.

• Seamless integration between primary care, pharmacy, and community teams.

It’s already starting. Practices in different parts of the country are banding together to use these systems collectively, sharing insights and improving care at scale.

And with each success story, more teams are getting on board—not because they’re told to, but because they see how much easier life becomes.

So, what next?

If you’re working in a practice, you’ve probably felt the weight of rising demand and dwindling capacity. You’ve probably wished there was a better way to manage reviews or recalls. Maybe you’ve tried something digital before, and it didn’t quite land.

That’s okay.

But the tools have come a long way—and so has the support. There’s now a generation of products built specifically for NHS primary care, with real-world needs in mind.

You don’t need to overhaul everything. Sometimes, starting with one small thing—like automating your flu invites or diabetic recalls—can unlock a surprising amount of breathing room.

And that might just be the start of something much bigger.

Curious about how practices are doing this already? You can find out more at hippolabs.co.uk—or drop them a line to see it in action. They've made it deliberately low-lift to try out.