chas49 wrote:SteelCamel wrote:So, with things opening up, I've run into another issue. I live in Scotland, I've got the Scottish exposure notification app and "Check in Scotland" for checking into venues. Then I visited family in England. The exposure notification apps work together, so nothing to do there. But "Check in Scotland" doesn't recognise the English NHS QR codes. No problem, I need to install the English app to check in to venues in England. But it won't let me register, as I don't live in England!
Some venues have their own system as well as the NHS system - this works, though is more work as I have to enter all my details every time. But the one venue I found that didn't (ironically at an airport, where you'd expect travellers from outside England) only had the alternative of a paper form.
Have the NHS really missed that they're not providing any way for those living outside England to check in?
Is there confusion here between the "NHS App" - which provides access to your medical records and vaccination status for people with an NHS England number, and the NHS "Covid-19" Test & Trace App - which does the exposure notification thing and venue checkin. As far as I can see you don't register on the Covid-19 app - the app doesn't know who you are. So you can use it whether you have an NHS England number or not.
No, it's the "NHS COVID-19" app, which does both exposure notification and check-in. It should really be named "NHS England & Wales", since it's specific to England & Wales, which does cause some confusion. The first thing it asks, after confirming you agree to the terms, is "Enter the first part of your postcode (postcode district). You need an English or Welsh postcode district to use this app" . Which is quite reasonable for the exposure notification part. But for the check-in part, it leaves those from Scotland, NI, and foreign visitors with no way to check in - as the QR codes are in an app-specific format that no other app can read. And yes, I could enter false details, but that defeats the point of checking in.
The company-specific (non-NHS) check in posters have a QR code that encodes a website address, which can be read by any recent smartphone without an app (and older ones with a generic QR code reader app).
The NHS app (again should be "NHS England and Wales") provides no services for residents of Scotland, so it doesn't matter that they can't use that one.