Appointment reminder text messages

The surgery have recently re-enabled our appointment reminder text messaging service.

Whilst also reminding patients of their appointments, the service also allows patients to cancel their appointment via text, which will hopefully reduce the did-not-attend rate of appointments.

Initially, text messages will only be sent to patients who have a ‘pre-booked face-to-face’ appointment. 

In preparation for this, some text messages have been, and will continue to be, sent to the following patients who have previously consented to receiving text messages from the surgery, over the next week:

– Patients over 13 who share a mobile number – the surgery’s opinion was that our previous text message consent form, and our bulk opt-in text message sent in summer 2021, did not address the risks involved of sharing a mobile number (i.e. everyone who has access to that number may see messages sent to it); these patients need to re-consent to sharing a mobile number; if these patients do not respond by the end of January, they will be blocked from receiving text messages until they have consented.

Moving forward, the surgery will also be sending text messages, in most cases at the start of each month, to the following patients who have previously consented to receiving text messages from the surgery:

– Patients who will be turning 13 the next month – these patients need to re-consent to receive text messages – at the age of 13, patients are deemed competent to decide whether or not they want to receive text messages, so if a parent / guardian consented on their behalf when they were under 13, that consent expires at 13; if the patient does not respond by the end of the month in which the text message is sent, they will be blocked from receiving text messages until they have consented.

*N.B.: Advice from our external Data Protection Officer was that it was best practice to do this, even if patients had previously consented to receiving text messages from the surgery.