Frequently Asked Questions

When signing up to the programme using the following link - East of England Form

You can then select from a possible two text message templates;

[1] - Your cervical screening test is due. If you haven’t booked an appointment, please contact your surgery to book one. Further info at: http://mygp.me/31f4Y1z
[2] - Your cervical screening test is due. If you haven’t booked an appointment, please call your surgery on [GP Telephone Number Inserted] to book. Further info at: http://mygp.me/31f4Y1z

A generic read-code will be applied for the failed messages such as;

Readcode v2 - 9Nj8
Readcode v3 - Xaa2M
SNOMED - 864231000000108

The content of this message will be recorded, however we suggest a clinical search is created to identify patients eligible for Cervical Screening with the above failed codes.

If your surgery regularly identify patients with failed messages the above would not be required as these would be captured routinely.

Yes, read-codes will be added to the patient record if the practice has one of the three main clinical systems (EMIS Web, SystmOne or Vision).

Readcode V2 - 9O8K - Cervical smear screening invitation short message service text

Readcode V3 - XaZJJ - Cervical smear screening invitation short message service text (procedure)

SNOMED - 836441000000104 - Cervical smear screening invitation short message service text

Practices are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible so they can choose their preferred message and iPlato can ensure that the required connectivity is in place to ensure a read-code can be added to a patient’s record. It is hoped that the service will go live by the end of May 2021 with the intention for full East of England coverage by the end of June 2021. If a practice doesn’t sign up before the service goes live the default message will be sent and no record of the SMS reminders will be recorded in individual patient records.

The practice should contact iPLATO having come to an agreement with NHS England who commission this service. But it should be noted that the patients will still be sent an invitation letter based on their call or recall date from CSAS. Practices should anticipate a 4% increase in cervical screening attendance over a 12-month period. Practices are advised to consider their capacity plans to ensure sufficient sample takers and screening appointment slots.

As there is no “accreditation” of GDPR compliance, we can only advise that we have worked with our legal specialists, Data Protection Officer, and NHS England to ensure that iPLATO Healthcare are 100% GDPR compliant in line with legislation.

iPLATO meets all requirements for Data Protection and DS&P (Information Governance) and is trusted by customers across the UK to handle, securely 21.5 million clients.

Please see below the Data Sharing Agreements, Data Processing Agreement and Terms in place:

https://www.pcm.nhs.uk/pcm_tc.php

https://www.iplato.com/dpa.pdf

It is not necessary to collect express consent from clients to communicate with them. GDPR does not regulate communication with clients, instead it is about the legal basis to process an individual’s data and their rights. In the healthcare space, providers use their “public task” legal basis to process client data for the provision of healthcare. Clients can then express their preferences not to be communicated via particular means and this is normally common practice in surgeries.

For more on how GDPR affects client messaging in the healthcare industry: https://mailchi.mp/8dda68c0a4ac/countdown-to-gdpr-4-things-you-need-to-know