Well done NHS Scotland … From a Fire, a Phoenix Can Rise

As the song says, “What a difference a day makes. 24 little hours”. And, from a fire, a phoenix can rise.

Well, it’s not easy releasing a new piece of software, and the first days are often the worst. So, on Thursday evening, the new NHS Scotland App was released, and, unfortunately, something buckled. It was also buggy. The main bug, though, was that after checking your biometrics and scanning your passport and matching your face to it, the system often failed to find the user. This happened even when you entered your health ID (in Scotland this is defined by the CHI number), and had checked all your details. There was no feedback given, just that a match could not be found. But, I am glad to say that there has been work done in the background, and, as of today, it seems to be all up-and-running. And, once you are registered, it looks great and works well.

With many pieces of software, if the first experience is not good, the user will often give up on it. But, for this App, I think users will go back to it, as it is likely to be used within international travel. I just hope that trust can be rebuilt, and that all the bugs are fixed. I would assume that sticky part of the process is the registration part, and once registered the proof of vaccine will stay on the device, and not rely on a back-end service.