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NHS Choices: what we do

About us

NHS Choices (www.nhs.uk) was launched in 2007 and is the official website of the National Health Service in England. With over 48 million visits per month, we have become the UK's biggest health website accounting for a quarter of all health-related web traffic. We strive to be a world-leading, multi-channel service for everyone engaging with the NHS and social care.

Tip

Discover how NHS Choices performed in 2015. We recorded 583 million visits in that year, 80 million more than 2014. View the NHS Choices 2015 traffic report (PDF, 345kb) and get an insight into the key trends and events that led to that success.

NHS Choices provides an award-winning, comprehensive health information service with thousands of articles, videos and tools, helping you to make the best choices about your health and lifestyle, but also about making the most of NHS and social care services in England.

Our service directories let you find, choose and compare health, support and social care services in England. We also publish reviews and ratings across health and social care services.

Where possible we offer online transactional services that should make your interaction with the NHS much simpler.

NHS Choices also publishes daily analysis of health-related stories that make the news.

Social media is an important part of the NHS Choices service, reaching up to 3 million people a month via Facebook, Twitter and video channels such as YouTube.

Information on the site is freely available to everyone, and we syndicate content to over 600 partner websites, including over 200 NHS organisations, Boots, Mumsnet and Microsoft.

NHS Choices blog

Go behind the scenes and find out what projects NHS Choices teams are working on, including a weekly report on trends regarding visits to our website and social media activity.

Awards

2014

  • National Digital Leaders Awards 2014 – winner for the healthcare product/service category

2011

  • Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Award – winner, for the 'Who Cares?' marketing campaign around Carers Direct, now Care and Support
  • National Digital Leaders Awards 2011 – NHS Choices digital health champion programme
  • International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Awards (Web 2.0) – bronze award for the interactive video Condom, no condom? produced by NHS Choices with NHS Bristol and Omni Productions

2010

  • National eWell-Being Award – winner for reaching digitally excluded groups, for our work with libraries
  • e-Government National Awards for excellence in learning and skills - runner-up, for the NHS Choices e-Learning website

2009

  • Guardian Public Services Award for service delivery: carers, families and communities
  • Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Awards – bronze for the NHS Choices pregnancy planner
  • British Medical Journal awards – winner Best Innovation in Medical Communication for Behind the Headlines

2008

  • e-Government National Awards – NHS Choices personalised online health products
  • BT e-Health Insider Awards – best use of ICT in patient and citizen involvement

Page last reviewed: 30/11/2024

Next review due: 31/01/2025