From today GPs will be receiving deliveries of the Pandemrix vaccine and will begin contacting 'at risk' groups for Swine Flu vaccination appointments. It was recently reported that there are fears that the backlog of post following the current Royal Mail strikes will affect the programme, resulting in 'at risk' groups missing their appointments and therefore delaying getting their vaccination. Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer has warned that thousands of people could miss appointments for their swine flu vaccine due to these postal strikes.
In response to this difficult situation, the Department of Health is now actively encouraging GPs and hospitals to use alternative methods of communication to combat the current limitations of the Royal Mail service. Text messaging is seen as a method that could play a key role in ensuring the maximum number of 'at risk' patients are engaged with. It has also been reported that a number of doctors are already considering sending text messages to patients to invite them for the swine flu vaccination rather than letters.
Text messaging has proven itself to be an extremely effective and immediate way to contact 'at risk' groups of patients, when used for the support of health promotion initiatives such as Smoking Cessation and seasonal Flu. As such, it is a resource that if used to engage with target groups relevant for Swine Flu, could make a real difference, especially if communication via the mail service remains problematic. When compared to other methods of patient engagement, text messaging consistently proves to be a considerably cheaper and more responsive communication channel than other options available (letters, landline call etc).
iPLATO's flagship text messaging platform, Patient Care Messaging (PCM), is currently being used by GPs across 43 Primary Care Trusts. As a result, the iPLATO network of users represents a very significant resource to be called on in an emergency such as this.
The iPLATO service is a web based text messaging system hosted within NHSnet that integrates to all major GP administration systems, allowing fully automated appointment reminders and targeted group messaging. Patients can respond via text if they wish, with replies being automatically forwarded to a pre-assigned email address. With an estimated 82% of the UK population owning a mobile phone, it is anticipated surgeries will be able to reach a significant number of their patients in this way.
iPLATO are currently actively engaging with their network of PCTs and GPs to highlight the potential of SMS GP-led Swine Flu vaccine invitations.
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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.