Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) has gone live with a digital appointment letters service.
The trust has partnered with Dr Doctor and Synertec to launch a solution to send appointment letters to patients in a digital, and physical, format when suitable.
Synertec, a company focused on patient document control, said the service complies with the accessible information standard (AIS), supporting EasyRead, Braille and large format.
Patients access an online portal to view appointment letters, and future alerts on appointments are sent as well by text message and email.
The launch follows a recent trial across three specialties; Dermatology, Gastroenterology & Colorectal Surgery, and is now live in Cardiology, Endocrinology/Diabetic Medicine, Ear, Nose & Throat, General Surgery, Oral Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic Medicine, and Vascular Surgery.
Karlyn Forrest, Director of Strategic Transformation at WWL, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer digital letters to our patients across the trust and Dr Doctor have provided us with an innovative and efficient way of contacting our patients safely and securely.
“The feedback we received from the successful trial period shows us that using digital letters helps to improve patient experience by giving people better access to their personal information.
“As a result, we will be able to deliver correspondence at a much faster rate, and in turn, by going paperless we will be able to reduce our carbon footprint and our costs across the trust.
“Our new service also has the potential to reduce the number of cancelled or missed appointments, and we appreciate that some patients will still prefer to receive paper letters in the post, and we would like to reassure the public that this option will remain available.”
