Event-based messaging
Use NHS Notify to send messages to patients and the public when a specific event is triggered in your organisation or service.
Examples of event-based messaging
When an event is triggered, you can use NHS Notify to automatically send messages like:
- appointment reminders
- booking confirmations
- test results
Choosing your message order
You can use message plans to decide how and what order messages will be sent to your recipients.
You can send event-based messages in the following ways:
- NHS App message only
- NHS App message, Email
- NHS App message, Text message
- NHS App message, Email, Text message
- NHS App message, Text message, Email
- NHS App message, Text message, Letter
- NHS App message, Email, Text message, Letter
Fallback rules for messages
If we cannot deliver a message through your first choice, we automatically try the next channel in your message plan. This is called a ‘fallback.’
All digital message channels will immediately fallback to the next channel if it is rejected or an ‘unnotified’ status is received.
NHS App messages will fallback to the next channel when:
- a ‘notified’ status is not received within 1 hour
- the message is not read by the recipient within 24 hours
Emails and text messages will fallback to the next channel if they are not delivered after 72 hours.
Letters do not have any fallback rules as they’re always sent last in message plans.
Using the NHS App for patient journeys
When you send event-based messages with the NHS App, you must adhere to the following in your user journeys:
- any links should only open a patient’s web browser
- links should only take patients to web content such as your website, NHS.UK or other relevant web pages
- do not include links that open other mobile applications
New and upcoming features for NHS Notify
If you’re thinking of using NHS Notify for event-based messaging but cannot find the features you need, read about our new and upcoming features to find out what we’re working on next.