Isle of Wight NHS Trust has gone live with its patient portal for digital outpatient appointment letters.
The trust noted they join “82 other trusts across the country offering a patient engagement portal” providing access to appointment letters and the ability to make changes to their upcoming care.
The trust highlights accessibility measures such as the ability to translate digital letters into over 100 letters, increased font size and background colour changes. Additionally, for patients who do not wish to receive digital communications or do not view digital letters within 48 hours, printed appointment letters are automatically posted.
Rachel Dominey, associate director of digital transformation, notes that since the introduction of the portal, more than 60 percent of patients are accessing appointment letters digitally.
There are plans to introduce other services to the portal, including inpatient and day cases, which are set to go live toward the end of 2024.
Highlights in patient-facing tech
When it comes to patient-facing tech, the NHS Humber Health Partnership launched a transformation project called ‘Flow’ last month, aiming to reduce unnecessary hospital stays and admissions by streamlining “every stage” of the patient journey, including plans for virtual wards and remote patient monitoring.
NHS England also shared guidance highlighting principles around the automation of test result release in patient engagement portals, along with requirements around portal functionality, including general information around tests, signposting to resources, and the ability for healthcare professionals to add comments, notes, or make manual overrides to send results before the expected automation date.
In North West London, the North West London Acute Provider Collaborative published a strategy covering 2024-2027, outlining shared priorities and plans including improving patient empowerment, offering enhanced access to patient information and results, and allowing patients an easier way of communicating with their healthcare team.
Using digital to support appointments in primary care
NHS North and Central London and the Islington GP Federation shared that they are trialling an AI solution earlier this year, utilising WhatsApp for cervical cancer screening appointments, with the aim of increasing uptake in cervical cancer screening particularly amongst underserved populations.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre has also expanded its digital appointment service, building on its success in digitising outpatient clinic appointment letters by taking the next step in digitising communications for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and radiology appointments.
And looking to news from across the NHS, statistics from NHS England published in June highlighted that 1,301,924 GP appointments in April 2024 were classed as video/online, a trend that has increased each month from 172,114 reported video/online consultations in April 2023.
