Patients of GP practices in Greenwich will soon benefit from receiving text messages to support health promotion and patient 'access'. NHS Greenwich has recently funded iPLATO Patient Care Messaging for 39 Greenwich surgeries. This new text messaging service aims to provide an effective communication channel for the support of health promotion campaigns such as Stop Smoking and also help reduce the number of missed GP appointments, by automated appointment reminders.
The iPLATO service has proved to reduce missed GP appointments in General Practice by between 26% and 40%, and has proven to be a highly effective and efficient method of when used to promote Public Health services.
The iPLATO service allows healthcare providers to engage with smokers through their mobile phones, rather than traditional methods of broadcasting population-wide messages via posters or adverts. By taking this approach, the PCT expects to significantly and cost effectively increase the number of people seeking support from the Stop Smoking Services.
From searches made on their GP system, surgeries can send out a text message asking patients to text back if they smoke or not. Patients who receive this message can text back their response by a reply text, received by the GP surgery as an email to a designated surgery email address. All patients identified as smokers can then be sent an additional text message inviting them to Smoking Cessation support and advice.
With an estimated 82% of the UK adult population owning a mobile phone, surgeries will be able to reach a significant number of their patients through this scheme. To achieve optimal uptake of the service, surgeries can encourage their patients to hand in their mobile contact details for their records to be updated.
Julie Richardson, Head of GP Support & Delivery at Greenwich PCT said, "We are excited to be offering this service to our patients. Anything that can help bridge the gap between the healthcare provider and patient we see as a positive. Using this system to request information from patients and as a way to invite patients to healthcare services is proving to be very helpful."
Related news articles:
- iPLATO's Profile
About Greenwich PCT
NHS Greenwich is the lead organisation for the NHS in Greenwich and is responsible for commissioning the health services needed by local people.
We will significantly improve health solutions and reduce health inequalities across Greenwich so that local people feel positive about the care and support they experience from the services we commission.
We know that we need to tailor health solutions to suit the health needs of the local population and we will provide knowledgeable, strong and high profile leadership to deliver this vision.
NHS Greenwich is committed to building and strengthening partnerships with other commissioners and providers who can help us - and we will prioritise tasks and activities that are likely to have the most impact on delivering this vision.
About iPLATO
iPLATO Healthcare is a London based innovation company dedicated to mobile health since 2006. iPLATO's evidence based mobile health solutions have proven to improve patient access to healthcare, to enable powerful health promotion targeted at people at risk and to support people with long term conditions.
Serving millions of patients and thousands of healthcare professionals every day iPLATO has emerged as the leader in mobile health. Across this network the company is running campaigns to promote smoking cessation, weight loss, childhood immunisation and pandemic awareness as well as mobile disease management services for people with diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy and HIV.
iPLATO Healthcare's mission is to, in partnership with healthcare professionals and provider organisations, support patients in achieving longer, healthier lives.