Every few hours, Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant, helps Scott Walker stay well. Walker’s cerebral palsy means he has poor coordination and movement, but since last spring Alexa has reminded him to take his medication, as well as automating other tasks around his home.

Previously, Walker, who works at Next, used light from his television to get into bed, but can now turn the room lights on and off with his voice. “I haven’t fallen since I’ve had this machine,” he says. “It’s feeling you are in control of your life. My father doesn’t have to worry I am taking my pills at the right time.”

An estimated five million UK households have a device that runs either Alexa or Google’s equivalent, according to the research firm Enders Analysis.

While most people use chatbots – software that recognises spoken or written natural language and responds in kind – to play music or get answers to questions, there’s increasing interest in people using them to take greater control of their lives. “It could stop a partner becoming a carer,” Walker points out.

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Walker’s speaker, provided as part of a pilot run by Hampshire county council for 50 recipients of adult social care, does not replace regular visits from care workers to help with physical movement, but means he can do more for himself.

Many social care visits are brief calls to check on whether, for instance, someone has taken their pills. If chatbots can replace some of these shorter visits, it could mean care workers being able to spend longer on more useful visits.

Graham Allen, Hampshire’s director of adult health and care, says almost three quarters of those in the pilot felt the device helped improve their lives and almost as many felt it had improved their independence, with numbers fairly consistent across different ages. “It’s not a cure-all,” he says. “It needs to be used along with other measures.” But he can see potential for many care service users living at home, and the county’s children’s social services department has just started issuing similar devices.

All NHS patients will be offered diagnosis by smartphone in a bid to modernise the offer to the public, and lift pressures on ailing services, Jeremy Hunt will say today.

Unveiling a series of pledges to allow the public to access healthcare online, the Health Secretary will say the health service must “embrace the age of the smartphone”.

Under the plans, the 111 service will offer a new service allowing patients to key in their symptoms on their smartphone, and receive instant advice, or a callback from clinical advisers, by the end of next year.

And a central NHS website will allow every person in the country to register with a GP, make appointments, order prescriptions and download their own medical record.

The same site will host new league tables which allow the public to track performance of their local health services  online – starting today with ratings for services for diabetes, dementia and learning disabilities.

Every part of the country will receive ratings on a four-point scale from best to worst.