Mythbusting: SMS are not free. Every message has a cost which increased once the message goes over 160 characters.

See also: Example message template

Do

• Do keep messages short: Ensure most message templates are under 160 characters, longer messages increase costs.
• Do use batch messaging effectively: Ensure batch messages are relevant to each patient’s direct care. e.g. Clinic invites. (Surgery news is not direct care)
• Do keep health data secure: Avoid including personal health information in SMS/email without specific patient consent in each case (not per patient).
• Do record patient preferred communication method: This has been part of QOF since 2019 and for SystmOne surgeries means items sent via 'Communications Annexe' are automatically sent via this method. e.g. SMS, email or app notifications
• Do provide opt-out option: Ensure staff understand how to opt out of care messages delivered via SMS and how to change the method (such as defaulting messages to email rather than SMS).*

Don't

• Don't include greetings/sign off: An SMS notification is not an email or letter. It doesn't begin with "Good morning" or end in "Kind regards." or similar.
• Don’t send surveys: The ICB does not allow service improvement messaging via the SMS solution.
  
• Don’t send messages that are news or marketing etc: Messages unrelated to direct patient care, like surgery news, promotions, or event invites are not allowable by the ICB-funded solution. Examples:
  • Closures
  • Staff joining/leaving
  • Open days/events
• Don't send sensitive information by default: Test results and other medical details should not be shared via SMS or email unless the patient has explicitly agreed. Secure solution: Online record access.
• Don’t use SMS for staff communication: The provided SMS facility is for patient care, not for messaging staff or third parties.

News/Marketing

If you wish to communicate with patients about general surgery news/marketing, your clinical system (TPP SystmOne/EMIS Web) and other care communication solutions (AccuRx/MJog) should not be involved. You would need to develop or procure a suitable separate solution to record the personal details of individuals for communication purposes that do not relate to direct care.

News/marketing should be a separate list of personal data based on those that either explicitly opt-in or where when providing the data there was transparency that it would be used for purposes beyond direct care (with clear route to opt out).

*Please remember that surgeries should have been proactively recording patient preferred communication method since at least QOF 2019-2020 and sending the first QOF invite via this method for each patient (this remains in QOF at time of writing 2024-2025). Communications Annexe unfortunately defaults to 'SMS' where a patient preferred method of communcation is not set.

Extract from QOF: "Many different methods of communication are already available to invite patients for QOF care and these are likely to expand with the ongoing development of digital technology. The NHS also has a legal duty to ensure that patients who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand as set out in the Accessible Information Standard. The first step to making an effective invitation for care therefore is that it is made in a manner which is accessible to the patient. Therefore, practices should prospectively and opportunistically record individual patients preferred methods of communication, for example at the time of the next patient contact. Where a preferred contact method is recorded this would be used to make the first invitation for care. The second invitation may be via any method."