NHS Digital is hosting its NHS Login on Amazon’s cloud service, AWS, as part of the government’s cloud first policy.
Moving to AWS means that the NHS Login service is more scalable, more available and boasts better security features. It joins a growing number of other NHS Digital services which are hosted on the cloud.
AWS is a fully serverless solution which allows it to respond to unpredictable spikes in demand through the use of Amazon Cognito, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, Amazon Rekognition and Amazon DynamoDB.
During the pandemic the demand for NHS Login rose and AWS Cloud was able to help it scale in order to meet demand. NHS Login enables users to identify themselves and link their healthcare record using their individual NHS number. Once registered, users have a quick and easy solution for booking GP appointments requesting prescriptions and more.
The identity platform enables residents in England to access a range of healthcare aps and services. It integrates with over 40 services, both internal and external. This includes myGP, the NHS e-Referral service (e-RS) and Patient Knows Best – however more services are looking to build, test and deploy their services for NHS Login.
It’s not the first time that NHS Digital has worked alongside AWS. The duo have previously collaborated on the NHS e-RS tool, which enables patients to choose their first hospital or clinical appointment with a specialist. They also worked together on the NHS 111 Directory of Services (DoS), a central directory connecting users with the most relevant urgent care services. e-RS and DoS were two of the first major NHS Digital systems to migrate to the cloud.