How do I get text reminders sent to my mobile phone?
You can sign up for this service by completing a form at reception or if you have an Appointments Online account you can sign yourself up using the “change my details” option.
Is it free?
We do not charge patients for this service and the standard message texts we send would normally be delivered to your phone free of charge. There may be circumstances where your mobile phone operator would charge you to receive a standard text – for example if you are abroad.
Who actually sends the texts?
Our appointment system automatically creates and sends the text messages. No staff time is involved.
When will I receive it?
Texts are sent around three hours before your appointment time. If your appointment is before noon then the text would be sent around 4pm the day before.
I’m signed up for text messaging but didn’t receive one. Why is that?
Very occasionally there may be a problem with the service we use to send the texts. This does not affect your appointment in any way, just the reminder. If you don’t receive a reminder text and want to double-check your appointment date/time with reception please ring – or you can check using Appointments Online.
The other main reason for a text message not being received is where your network operator rejects the text message we send. This can occur if the number we hold for you is incorrect or maybe your phone is unable to receive any further text messages for whatever reason.
Can I respond to the text?
Currently no but when our text carrier is capable of allowing incoming texts to the Practice we will be able to process cancellation requests by text. At that time the text reminder messages will be changed to indicate how you can cancel your appointment.
What will the text say?
Whoever you are due to see the reminder message we send will look similar to this:
“You have an appointment at Burn Brae Medical Group for tomorrow at 10:20. If you no longer require this appointment, please call the surgery on 01434 603627”
We do not send your name or the name of the person you are seeing.
What other texts will I receive?
Normally just appointment reminders, however we may send you a text message if we have been unable to contact you for some reason - for example to cancel an appointment. In that case you may receive a message asking you to contact the surgery.
We are also keen to send appointment invitations (for example asking you to book an appointment for a flu vaccination). These messages would be targeted at specific groups of people (for example anyone aged over 65 or in a flu risk group).
We have also developed our own software that allows us to automatically send blood test results to our diabetic patients. This may be an area that we can develop further over time.
What if I change my phone number?
Simply notify reception. You will also notice that whenever you book a new appointment at the reception desk they will print off a reminder slip which includes your mobile phone number. Do check that we hold your current number.
I have updated my mobile number online but it keeps changing back to my old number. What do I do?
At the present time if we hold a mobile phone number for you in our clinical system that number over-writes any number held on our appointments system. Unfortunately that does mean that if you change your mobile number through Appointments Online then in a day or two our clinical system will force your old number back onto our appointments system and then Appointments Online will be updated to show the old number again. While we work on a fix for this problem, if you experience this issue simply send a message through Appointments Online with your new mobile phone number and we will update our clinical system accordingly. In a couple of days Appointments Online will automatically show your new number.
