NHS to overhaul patient communications and end ‘farce’ of invitations arriving after appointment

Patients are to receive at least three weeks' notice from the NHS for all planned (non-urgent) medical appointments, under plans to overhaul patients' experiences of the health service.

NHS chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, today said that trying to get clarity from the NHS had been like walking through treacle for far too many families, as he set out new standards for NHS services to improve patients' experiences of care.

The standards, published today, set out what patients can expect from the NHS when they are referred for planned (elective) care, and have been developed in consultation with patients, unpaid carers and experts including The Patient's Association, Healthwatch England and The King's Fund.

The guidance is part of a major drive by the NHS to overhaul the way the public experiences and interacts with the health service, alongside reforms to improve their care and reduce waiting times.

Sir Jim said the plans will see the NHS finally end the unacceptable uncertainty of patients not knowing whether they've been referred or receiving invitations days after an appointment has already been missed to ensure people can access specialist care faster, while improving NHS efficiency.

Under the plans, all patients will receive clear confirmation via the NHS App when their referral from their GP has been accepted by a hospital specialist and they have joined the waiting list.

The notifications may also be sent by text and letter and will help patients track their referral through the NHS in the way that you can for online shopping.

The NHS will also ensure a consistent customer service' approach for those on the waiting list, providing regular updates at least every 12 weeks to ask patients about their condition and whether there is any change in their needs as well as providing advice on self-care while they wait and what to do if their condition worsens.

Should patients need to reschedule their appointment at the last minute, hospitals are being asked to ensure a new appointment invitation is received within 28 days.

Patients will also receive clear communications about the next steps agreed with their clinician once their treatment ends including whether they will have a set timeframe for any follow-up appointments needed or be asked to book a follow-up when they need one (know as patient initiated follow-up, or PIFU).

While the NHS will increasingly make the most of the NHS App to provide faster and more convenient communication for patients, existing traditional methods of communication including letters, texts and phone calls will continue to be available for anyone that needs them.

The plans come as the NHS is set to appoint its first National Director of Patient Experience to deliver wide-ranging reforms to patient experience maximising data and user journey approaches to radically improve the way the public interacts with the NHS.

Thanks to the hard work of staff across the country, public satisfaction with the NHS increased this year for the first time since 2019, with waiting lists brought down to their lowest level in almost three years.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS chief executive, said: Almost everyone has a story in their family about how navigating the NHS has been like walking through treacle, including cases where patients aren't even sure if they've been referred, which is clearly unacceptable.

If we want to keep improving patients' experiences and satisfaction with the NHS, we have to fix the basics and that starts with how we treat people even before they arrive for their treatment.

Our communication with patients needs to be clear and easy to understand. We have to get away from making patients ask us multiple times to get the information they need, and start delivering five-star customer service.

These standards are by no means revolutionary they are simple and clear standards that should be the bare minimum the public can expect from our services, and together we have to make sure that patient experience is always at the very centre of our decision-making and service planning.

Staff across the country have driven real progress in how people are experiencing the NHS this year but there is a long way to go. Needing medical care is stressful enough, and through all the work to join up our data and invest in digital technology, we are building a modern NHS fit for the future and able to make life much easier for patients to access the care they need.

The eight new minimum standards for patient experience have been developed following extensive consultation with patient representative groups on what the public would like to see from the NHS but too often isn't happening.

The expert advisory group for the standards included Carers Trust, Carers UK, Healthwatch England, National Voices, the Patient Safety Commissioner, Picker, and The King's Fund and The Patients Association and The Richmond Group of Charities.

They have been published and circulated to all providers of planned NHS care today to ensure they can be put into practice as soon as possible to deliver a more consistent experience for patients across the country.

All NHS trusts will now be asked to publish a summary annually of their performance towards the eight new standards, to ensure transparency for patients and the public about how their local services are performing.

While some trusts are already demonstrating significant improvements and elements of best practice in customer service, the new guidance represents the minimum expected from all providers to ensure standards are improved across the country, while delivering efficiencies and savings for the NHS.

For example, since The Walton Centre introduced text appointment reminders in 2024, it has reduced missed appointments and freed up 400 more appointments per month for other patients to help reduce waiting times.

The standards comes as the NHS continues to invest in joining up fragmented health data ahead of government plans to introduce a Single Patient Record' that will enable safer, more co-ordinated care and ensure patients do not have to keep repeating their story to multiple healthcare professionals.

Health and Social Care Secretary James Murray said: "For too long, patients have been left chasing the NHS for basic information on their treatment. That's not good enough. These new patient standards are the bare minimum and things the health service should already be providing patients: clear confirmation when you're referred, regular updates while you wait, and proper notice before your appointment. This is the floor, not the ceiling, but will drive up standards as we rebuild the NHS.

They form part of how the government is modernising patient care from the ground up - connecting every Trust to the NHS App, and introducing a Single Patient Record so people stop having to repeat their story at every turn.

William Pett, Interim Director of Policy & External Affairs at Healthwatch England, said: We welcome the publication of these standards as a clear signal from NHS leaders that high-quality customer service matters as much to patients as the length of their wait. For too long, patients have told us about referral letters going missing, delayed appointment letters or feeling forgotten about altogether for months on end without news of when they will be seen.

The real challenge will be to ensure these standards are delivered. We urge trusts to upskill and enable their admin teams to deliver better service and reduce the burden on patients in chasing for updates.  Annual self-assessment by trusts of their progress in meeting these standards should also go hand in hand with gathering public views on whether the NHS is meeting is goal of smoother, clearer and more supportive journeys for people referred for planned care.