GPs use text to help patients stub out the ciggies

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Doctors in Islington have turned to mobile technology to help patients quit smoking, claiming that using text messaging for campaigns is up to six times more effective than traditional contact methods.

GP surgeries in the area have been using a system called iPLATO to ascertain patients' current smoking status and invite those who want to give up to cessation clinics.

Just under a third (30 per cent) of patients respond to the SMS request for information, compared to a low response rate of just five per cent when doctors attempted to get the information using letters.

Given the high level of smokers living in the area - some 33.5 per cent of the adult population in Islington smoke, compared to 26.5 per cent in North Central London and 27.5 per cent in England as a whole - increasing response rates to this type of campaign is key for the borough.

Around 39 out of every 10,000 people die due to smoking-related causes in Islington, which again is a much higher rate than elsewhere in London.

"We sent a text message to 200 patients telling them that we were updating their medical record and asked - 'pls. text back current non smoker; smoker & are you ready to quit?'; any patients indicating that they were still smoking were invited for smoking cessation support,", said Charlotte Blyth, practice manager at the Elizabeth Avenue Surgery in Islington.

"Using letters and even calling up patients to invite them to the surgery is a huge drain on surgery resources and staff time. With the iPLATO system we can contact hundreds of patients instantly without having to stuff a single envelope. Many of our own surgery staff were amazed at the rapid response, as the majority of patients responded within minutes. If we had run the same campaign using letters we would generally have to wait a few days to get any response."

And it's not just campaign response rates that can be enhanced by the use of SMS communication.

In November last year, Ealing Primary Care Trust (PCT) announced that it planned to start sending texts to patients to reduce the amount of missed appointments - a move that could help shave up to £380 million from NHS overheads if it were adopted nationwide.

"Text messaging has a huge role to play in the way surgeries communicate with their patients, the immediacy and convenience of this medium has been illustrated by the positive results experienced by many of our surgeries," said David Thomas, head of information at Islington PCT.

"Islington PCT is dedicated to using innovative technologies to enhance patient services while giving patient greater choice in the way in which they receive health information; we see text messaging as one of the technologies."

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