NHS England is putting lots of effort into increasing (1) patient downloads and (2) the number of messages going to the NHS app. As a result, Accurx has teamed up with the NHS app to allow patients more choices on how to receive communication from their healthcare practitioners, resulting in a lower-cost option to notify patients about information on their health.
This feature is only available to practices that signed up for the pilot. Users who signed up will have been notified by email in December 2024 and practices will see a banner prior to the feature being enabled.
We are piloting sending individual Accurx SMS via the NHS App in the pilot. The aim of the pilot is to prove the effectiveness of the NHS App as a channel for individual messages without compromising clinical care.
How does the pilot work?
This pilot will be available for practices who choose to sign up for 12 weeks and launched on Monday 6th January.
Structure of the pilot
Not all practices in the pilot will have access to the NHS App integration - this is so that we can compare the experience and key metrics between practices with the NHS App integration & those without, in the pilot.
Practices in the pilot will be allocated to one of two groups:
Group 1: practices where individual messages are only sent via SMS (as of today)
Group 2: practices where eligible patients will receive an individual message via the NHS App
How does the Individual Messaging and NHS App feature work?
For users in Group 2 of the pilot, all individual messages sent via Accurx will now go via the NHS App as the first attempt to send the message. There will be no change to how you currently send individual messages. If the patient doesn't have the NHS App, we'll send it via SMS instead.
We check for the following conditions: 👇
That patients have the NHS app installed on their phones.
That patients have notifications switched on.
What types of messages will be sent via the NHS App?
For practices in Group 2 (NHS App group), you will be able to send the following messages to the NHS App inbox of patients who have their NHS App notifications switched on:
Individual SMS
Individual SMS with response allowed
Individual Questionnaire
Individual Self-Book Link
Video Consultation Invite
NHS App users who have a proxy link to a patient in the NHS App (i.e. parents linked to children under 14, or carers etc.) will not receive NHS App messages relating to the linked patient, as messaging is not currently supported in the NHS App for proxy profiles.
The table below shows the message types and the pathway the message can be sent via 👇
Message | Has the NHS App + Notifications on | No NHS App or notifications not on | Email included in CSV |
Batch Simple Message | NHS App 📱 | SMS 📞 | Emailed 📩 |
Batch Questionnaire | NHS App 📱 | SMS 📞 | Emailed 📩 |
Batch Self-Book Link | NHS App 📱 | SMS 📞 | Not available via Email ❌ |
Appointment Reminders | NHS App 📱 | SMS 📞 | Not available via Email ❌ |
The following messages will only go via SMS and not the NHS App 👇
Questionnaire reminders
Confirmation messages
2 factor-authentication messages (sent when a patient verifies their identity when submitting an online request)
All message types that are already integrated with the NHS App (Batch messages and Appointment Reminders) will continue to be sent via the NHS App.
What happens if a patient doesn’t read a message in the NHS App?
We are committed to ensuring messages can be delivered via the NHS App in a clinically safe manner. For this reason, if a patient hasn’t read a message in the NHS App within 60 minutes of being delivered, an SMS message (a fallback message) is sent to that patient as well. This fallback SMS is triggered using real-time read receipt information from the NHS App. We will automatically send the message via SMS if the NHS App cannot deliver a push notification on the patient’s phone.
💬 Where do the responses go?
Responses will continue to go back to the same places as if you were sending a patient an SMS or Florey by text.
When will a message go via the NHS App?
The diagram below shows when we will use different channels for an individual message
If a user selects Email for an individual message (except Self-book links), we will email a patient
If email is not selected, we will try to deliver the message via the NHS App
If a patient doesn't have the NHS App, or their notifications switched on, we will automatically fall back to SMS
🌟 When a message is sent, we check the NHS API to see if a patient has the NHS App downloaded & notifications switched on, which then determines whether we send the message via NHS App or SMS.
Can I override sending a message to the NHS App and send it via SMS?
There isn’t an option to override sending a message to the NHS App if a patient has the App and notifications on. However, a user can override a number pulled from the patient record that is displayed in Compose - if this number is altered manually in the compose screen, we will default to sending via SMS only.
How will I know that the NHS App integration is switched on?
We plan to go live on Monday 6th January. The user who signed up for the pilot will receive an email from Accurx to confirm the integration has been switched on. You will be able to check that your practice is up and running as you will see the below banner in Accurx. 👇 If you cannot see this banner, please get in touch with our Support team.
Will I get confirmation of the delivery / read status of an NHS App message?
When messages are sent via the NHS App (the patient has the App downloaded and notifications turned on) you will be able to see an update in the conversation thread as "sent- To:NHS App". We will not update the status once a message has been delivered or read (but may add this in in future).
If a patient doesn't read the message in the NHS App within 60 minutes, a backup SMS is sent. There won't be any update on the status of this SMS message, as a patient has already been notified in the NHS App and this SMS is only a backup mechanism (again this might be changed in future).
If a patient doesn't have the NHS App downloaded or notifications switched on then the message is sent immediately via SMS to reduce the risk of an unseen message, and the conversation thread will update as it currently does for messages sent via SMS, including failed delivery notifications if an SMS fails.
How can we prepare patients for this change?
The NHS App is becoming a prominent channel for communication around a patient’s health, and the NHS App team are seeing more downloads every day. Patients should be increasingly familiar with receiving messages via the NHS App, as over half of messages sent using Accurx are now integrated with the App.
To drive the success of this pilot, we recommend that you communicate this with your patients and encourage them to download the NHS App, and switch their notifications “On”. You could do this in several ways:
You can use NHS Digital templates here or you can use website banners and infographics here to help you to communicate this to patients.
Customise the copy in your Patient Triage form to let patients know that they will receive a response to their request via the App if they have the App & notifications switched on. This support article shows where you could update the wording in your Patient Triage form.
Sending a text message or email to patients ahead of the pilot starting, to let them know individual messages can now be received via NHS App.
However, if a patient does not want to download the NHS App, they will continue to receive messages via SMS as they do now.
📖 What resources are available to support patients using this feature?
Patients have a wide range of resources available to them both on the Accurx Help Centre and the NHS app Support Centre. Here are some suggested articles to help them when using the NHS app feature to view messages sent to them via Accurx. 👇
Title | Source |
Accurx | |
NHS | |
NHS | |
NHS |
Where can patients go to get more support?
Patients can get in touch with the Accurx User Support team by going to the Help Centre and clicking on the messenger icon in the bottom right-hand corner. 👇
If the patient is experiencing an issue specific to the NHS App they can contact the NHS app Support Team by going to the NHS website and selecting the option to contact the Help Desk.
How can I share feedback or raise an issue?
If you have any concerns or questions please contact our Support Team.
If you would like to submit feedback about the integration, please use the “Send Feedback” option on the toolbar, found in the menu if you click your initials. Please include “Individual messages via the NHS App” in your feedback.
Can I switch the integration off?
Practices will be able to switch the NHS App individual integration off at any point during the pilot. Please contact us using our Support chat function and a member of the team will switch the integration off. Our team will ask why you would like to switch the integration, so that we can gather feedback and insight from practices, to help us improve the integration in the future.
What will happen after the pilot?
The individual messaging integration will stay switched on for practices who had access to it during the pilot, whilst we analyse the results from the pilot. If you would prefer to switch the integration off, please contact our Support Team who can do this for you.
Will the fallback SMS increase my fragment costs?
If we cannot send a message to a patient's NHS App (either because they don't have the NHS App, or notifications on), or the patient doesn't read their NHS App message within one hour, we will send them a fallback SMS. This fallback SMS doesn't incur any additional fragment costs - the cost of the fallback SMS is the same as sending an SMS from the compose.
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page. 👉