SMS patient messaging

Upcoming Review — this page is due to be reviewed by Saturday, 20 July 2024. The information shown here may be outdated.

Patient messaging is central and indispensable to primary care access. Over the last few years, GP surgeries have embraced text messaging (SMS) as a key source of communication with patients and have used it to improve access to primary care.

Patient messaging allows practices to manage the increasing demand for services (often saving the need for an appointment) through direct clinician-patient messaging and reduces ‘did not attends’ through automated appointment reminders and opportunities to reschedule/cancel.

NCL ICB currently holds two contracts for SMS messaging:

Accurx SMS Plus (for two way messaging)
iPlato (for batch messaging and appointment reminders).

Resource pack

The NCL Digital Team has developed a patient messaging resource pack to support GP surgery staff in optimising their use of patient messaging tools such as SMS.

Please see the latest resource pack in the ‘useful resources’ section of this page.

Being SMS smart

Over the past few years, practices have been using text messages more and more every day to communicate with patients. Text messages have helped GPs work faster, more efficiently, and with more impact in the population. However, every message sent incurs a cost. To help ease the financial burden of messaging, the Digital Team is asking practices to take some easy steps to reduce costs.

See the Being SMS smart infographic for ways guidance on reducing SMS costs.

For further information or assistance, contact the Digital Team via e: nclicb.digitalfirst@nhs.net

Accurx SMS Plus

Accurx messaging is a communication tool available to practices to reach patients digitally.

SMS Plus allows practices to:

send one-way messages
send two-way messages which allow patients to upload pictures/documents
send attachments to patients
access Florey Questionnaires.

The Accurx toolbar can be downloaded from the Accurx website. Contact the support team via the Accurx Help Centre.

iPlato

iPlato is commissioned by NCL for sending patient appointment reminders via text message. To log in, visit the iPlato website.

The iPlato myBuddy toolbar allows practices to send a text message to a patient or arrange a video consultation. Download the toolbar from the MyGP website.

Practices can increase their QOF points and reduce admin burden by using iPlato patient questionnaires.

The support team can be contacted via e: help@iplato.com or t: 020 3743 0060.

The iPlato customer success manager for NCL is e: Khalima.shakir@iplato.com

Training sessions are available on request.

Review date: Saturday, 20 July 2024

Useful resources

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