The NHS does text patients appointment reminders, despite health secretary’s suggestion otherwise

The NHS does send texts to patients to remind them of appointments, among other things, contrary to a suggestion from the health secretary at the weekend.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (34:00) on 5 January, Wes Streeting said: “You book a table in a restaurant these days—or even an appointment at the hairdresser—you’ll get a text message 24 or 48 hours in advance to remind you. Why doesn’t the NHS do this?”

But many NHS services already do send patients reminders via text.

While it is not clear how many NHS trusts across England (where the UK government has responsibility for the NHS) offer this service, many patients can opt-in to receive text reminders.

A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson told Full Fact: “Many NHS providers are not currently sending digital or text reminders or notifications consistently across all of their services. Based on the handful that have trialled this, if all trusts sent patients reminders, giving them the chance to rearrange or cancel if they can’t make it, it could save a million missed appointments a year. This is exactly the kind of service the NHS should be providing for patients, to make the health service more convenient and cut out waste, and now it will.”

NHS England also told us: “While the NHS App [which was also mentioned on the programme] is not mandated and the offer of digital reminders is not universal, the health service is encouraging all providers to use the technology so that the three quarters of all adults in England who have access to the app can receive the latest information about their health.”

Update: we’ve included responses from both the DHSC and NHS England.