NHS to trial technology
From NHS England:
‘Patients will be able to book and change medical appointments online, receive text reminders and even access maps showing them where in a hospital they need to go through a digital patient tool set to be trialled in ten hospitals.
The online portal, DrDoctor, is set to save the NHS tens of millions of pounds by slashing the number of missed appointments as well as making it easier and more convenient for patients to make and manage bookings. Patients can also fill in medical forms before they arrive using the system and receive appointment letters digitally.
DrDoctor is already used in ten hospitals including Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Frimley Health NHS Trust and will soon be trialled in 11 more across the country as the NHS works to ensure every penny is spent wisely.
Hospitals using the tool are: saving up to £2m a year each by cutting missed appointments; are seeing the number of appointments where patients don’t turn up falling by almost a third and are cutting their postage costs by more than a quarter.
The tool will be trialled at NHS sites specially selected to test the impact of DrDoctor across a variety of hospitals, from small specialist sites to large inner city hospitals, with plans for the pilot to be in place by March.’
