News

NHS England to support SMS for primary care organisations until September 2015

The Department of Health has made a decision to withdraw central funding for NHSmail SMS and fax services for all organisations on 31 March 2015.  However, NHS England has now formally agreed to support a replacement SMS service for primary care organisations that use the current NHSmail SMS service (including Clinical Commissioning Groups, GP practices, Pharmacists, Optometrists, Dentists) until 30 September 2015. NHS England have taken this decision  to provide additional time for existing primary care services, to make provisions with general practices, to transition this to a local service from 1st October 2015.

Further communications about the new email to SMS service will be cascaded by NHS England when finalised.  This will be a separate service from the NHSmail email service.

NHS England will continue to explore how best to migrate to a local funding model for SMS post September 2015.  Further details will be provided in early 2015 to enable organisations to plan accordingly.

The existing service provider (Vodafone) will continue to provide the SMS service until 1 July 2015. If you have any issues with your current service during this period, you should follow your existing helpdesk process.

NHS England are providing an SMS service for existing users only, until 1 October 2015, should you wish to provide an SMS service for new users within your organisation, you may wish to view the advice on procuring an SMS service.

Any further questions, please contact: england.digitalprimarycare@nhs.net