Lewisham Primary Care Trust launches text message appointment reminders

Lewisham Primary Care Trust has launched iPLATO Patient Care Messaging at GP surgeries throughout Lewisham. Patients at Morden Hill Surgery, Vesta Road Surgery, Muirkirk Road Surgery, Wells Park Practice, Brockley Road Surgery, Rushey Green Group Practice and the Kingfisher Surgery will receive appointment reminders and health information directly to their mobile phones. These practices became involved in this new service because they have higher levels of patients who do not attend appointments.

To access the service, which is free of charge, the patients will have to register their mobile phone number at their surgery. This will be the largest deployment of iPLATO Patient Care Messaging to date in the United Kingdom. Leaflets with further information are available at all those GP practices involved.

The Imperial College of London recently estimated that missed appointments (”Did-not-attends”) cost the NHS approximately £789 million per year. This study also suggested that the NHS could save £240 - £370 million per year by launching text appointment reminders throughout England.

“Mobile patient services are the way forward in Lewisham”, said Simon Gosney, Minor Illness Service Improvement Facilitator at Lewisham PCT. “We have an ethnically and socially very diverse population. A vast majority already uses the mobile to run their daily lives. I believe that text messaging to remind them about their appointments is a perfect first step towards building a ‘mobile relationship’ with them. In the next 12 months we aim to reduce missed appointments by 25% from where we are today and get as many patients as possible onto the system as quickly as possible.”

Lewisham Primary Care Trust chose iPLATO for its long experience in UK primary care. Patient Care Messaging is functional and secure. It improves service without adding extra work for healthcare staff and integrates seamlessly with existing systems used by GPs to book appointments and clinics. In addition to appointment reminders, GPs will use Patient Care Messaging to create and manage text campaigns to remind patients about flu-jabs and childhood immunisations, which are an important issue in Lewisham. The service is operational in ten other Primary Care Trusts where it has dramatically increased operational efficiency and the quality of care.

“Lewisham Primary Care Trust has proved to be innovative and forward-thinking by introducing Patient Care Messaging,” said Tobias Alpsten, Managing Director of iPLATO. “It is a borough that faces many challenges and we support the PCT not only with our technology but, more importantly, with our unparalleled experience in delivering radical improvements to cost efficiency and quality of care.”

Lewisham Primary Care Trust will be reviewing the effectiveness of the Text Messaging Service in March 2007, before recommending it to other GP practices in Lewisham.

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Notes for Editors:

About Lewisham Primary Care Trust

Lewisham Primary Care Trust is responsible for community and primary care services in Lewisham. It is also responsible for commissioning local hospital and mental health services.

Press contact: Kelly Scanlon, Head of Communications ,
Kelly.scanlon@lewishampct.nhs.uk,
020 7206 3334
Picture available: Phone with appointment reminder on display.

About iPLATO

iPLATO is a privately owned limited company founded in London in the autumn of 1999. In 2003, iPLATO was awarded a SMART Feasibility Grant by the Department of Trade & Industry to study the feasibility for national implementation of a system to remind outpatients about scheduled appointments using text messaging technology.

Since completing the study, the company has invested substantial resources towards overcoming the barriers to entry of the healthcare market and now provides successful healthcare solutions to NHS organisations throughout the United Kingdom - building a promising business around its flagship service ‘Patient Care Messaging’.

The European Venture Contest, organised by the European Commission, recognised iPLATO as one of the top ten early stage technology ventures ready to “reshape their industry and to conquer the global market” and featured on the Red Herring Europe Top 200 of companies to watch in 2006. iPLATO began 2008 with extensive (PCT funded) roll out of Patient Care Messaging to GP surgeries across 10 Primary Care Trusts.

Press contact:

Julia Hanley
020 3178 4676
julia.hanley@iplato.net
One Lyric Square,  W6 0NB, London, United Kingdom
www.iplato.net 
Pictures available on request