An innovative NHS
appointment text messaging service has been rolled out to six London-based primary care trusts (PCTs), it was announced on Thursday.The messaging service uses software that is designed to access NHS patient databases and send reminders of appointments. Patients can also be contacted if they are deemed to be "at risk", and can send confirmation back by SMS.
"We extract the relevant information — the mobile phone number, the date and time of the appointment — from each client's site," said Toby Gockel, business development manager for iPlato, which supplies the software the messaging service uses.
"Clients could be trusts, surgeries, any independent unit that arranges appointments. We then send the information via a TCP/IP encrypted connection from our server, which enables automatic text messaging. The server generates an appointment reminder message, which is sent via the Orange SMS gateway to every mobile phone," Gockel said .
Orange provides the GSM platform to send the texts. The server used by iPlato can currently handle large volumes of SMS messages, the company said.
"We can send four million texts per day in the current system. The server has a huge capacity," said Gockel.
The project has the backing of Liberal Democrat MP and health spokesman Steven Webb.
"This is entirely a positive thing for everyone involved. It's clearly a gain for patients. It speeds up the appointment process, as patients can cancel if they can't get to the appointment, which frees up potential space. From the practice point of view they save money, as a text is a fraction of the cost of a stamp," said Webb.
"There is clearly a case for central government incentivising [sic] this kind of scheme. The money GPs get depends on their meeting various targets. This could include rewards for setting up text based systems. Once the system has been set up, costs come down," said Webb.
Security and patient confidentiality have been addressed through numerous fail-safes. The information is only passed through the NHS intranet, and is encrypted, while servers only respond to requests from trusted IP addresses.
"NHS.net is like an intranet — it's secure. Our server is configured to only accept incoming information from the fixed IP addresses of client sites," said Gockel. "Information transmission is by 128 bit SSL code."
The NHS administrator responsible for implementing the pilot study in south London thought the system might be too secure.
"NHS.net is very secure. I think it might be over-secure, even. It's very difficult when I'm trying to open a port as I can't use IRC — it's a bit of a pain," said Adrian James-Morse, IT coordinator for Dr Masterton's Surgery in Streatham.
Patients can be grouped by the NHS — for example, if they need a flu jab — and then sent a bulk message. Each text costs 6p per patient.
"Compared with the traditional way of printing out letters — which is labour and resource intensive, and costs approximately £1 per patient — with texts, all of a sudden you have a fantastic business case," said Gockel.
Patients can also respond to the texts. The server converts the text messages to email, and these are sent to the healthcare site.
Talkback
A further use of NHS funding which does nothing to improve active health care and treatment and uses funds that could otherwise be used for additional medical staff.
If it saves money in the long run on the NHS then the idea is very much a good one. A text message is more convenient, cheaper and faster method of communication than letters then there is a saving. Plus if there are more appointments because it is easier to cancel an appointment then it will be 1) easier to see my GP and 2) save money on the nhs overall.
In my opinion, this is a decent use of NHS funds as it actually saves money in the long run and provides a more efficient service. In a day when the NHS is slow and cumbersome, technology like this is needed.
This has got to add another few hundred non medical staff to the already bloated administration within the NHS. And, even should it work successfully, there is the doubt of whether it will connect with the patient - the customer without whose existence the whole thing is not needed.
It presumes that patients will have a mobile phone and that they will be willing to accept text messages.
The existing archaic system of hospital appoints using snail mail is fairly foolproof (although my local Hospital Trust has stopped giving appointments until 6 weeks before one is due to see the consultant - emphatically denies that it is a surreptitious way of not having a waiting list - says you are kept on a list to be given an appointment rather than be given an appointment. Must use many more clerical hours!!)
And where is the funding for the millions of text messages to be sent?
Perhaps it would be acceptable if absolutely NO extra staff or funding was permitted for the service.
NHS in UK does it for British patients - Paris based Internet editor Adyary does it, too ! Web based secure and shared, MonAgendaMedical (http://www.monagendamedical.com) is a calendar for physicians and small medical specialty units. The physicians or their secretaries set up apointments in this web calendar which send e-mail to confirm and remind apointments. The SMS feature of the calendar automatically sends out also SMS apointment reminders 24 hours before the date. Currently available only in French, Adyary is already working on the translation of the site into English and plans to put it onto the British market at the beginning of next year.