By Grimsby & Scunthorpe hospitals to go digital for ‘quick and easy’ usage
The admission letters for inpatients and day patients for Grimsby & Scunthorpe hospitals are to go digital from mid-August, in a centralised digital approach to minding patients.
Patients will receive a text message with links to digital letters to notify them of their admission, and further information would be included.
The Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust claims they have already saved over £100,000 in printing and postage costs, since rolling out digitally.
The scheme will be a “phased approach” and patients under Trauma and Orthopaedics, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Breast surgery, Oral surgery, and Ophthalmology will be in the first phase. There will also be SMS reminders, with information regarding the appointments and locations, and timings.
Jackie France, Associate Director for Patient Services, said: “We already send the majority of outpatient letters digitally, and since we introduced them we’ve saved more than £100,000 in printing and postage costs and we’ve seen a reduction in the number of patients failing to turn up to their appointments. We’ve listened to patient feedback and have extended the amount of time people have to open their letters – we’ve increased it from 24 to 48 hours.
“As well as being quick and easy for patients to use, digital letters are more accessible as people can view the letter in different languages and text sizes and even have it read out to them. If you receive a text message from ‘NHS NLaG’, please be assured it is genuine and from us; we know from the outpatient digital letter rollout that some people were worried the messages may have been a scam.”
