Ealing patients to receive appointment reminders by text

Ealing Primary Care Trust (PCT) plans to send texts to patients to cut down on the amount of missed appointments, in a move that could shave up to £380 million from NHS overheads if it were adopted nationwide.

Following on from successful trials of the system, which is based on iPlato's patient care messaging service and uses Orange's mobile network, in Perivale and Northolt, its reach is being extended.

iPlato's service works in conjunction with the patient administration systems (PAS) already used by GPs in the area.

The pilot at Perivale's Hillview Surgery alone led to a 30 per cent drop in the number of missed appointments.

Soon, GP appointment reminders and other health information will be sent automatically by SMS to patients registered at 22 of the borough's surgeries, covering a total of 130,000 patients.

To benefit from the free-of-charge service, patients simply need to register their mobile number at their local surgery. They can unsubscribe at any time.

"Mobile patient services have proven that they are cost effective and scalable and are, therefore, the way forward in Ealing," said Keith Martin, service development manager at Ealing PCT.

"We have a diverse population of 360,000 patients registered with GPs in the borough and many already use mobiles to run their daily lives... [The system] improves service without adding extra work for healthcare staff and integrates seamlessly with existing systems used by GPs to book appointments and clinics."