NHS Notify API

4 votes

The NHS Notify API will allow services to send requests so that messages can be sent to their intended recipients. The service NHS Notify was previously known as Communications Manager.

Done api communications-manager-api Suggested by: Tom Hattersley (16 Jan, '23) • Upvoted: 15 Aug, '23 • Comments: 5

Comments: 5

15 Aug, '23
TomC
I noticed it says: “message routing - via SMS, email, letter and NHS App”

Please can I ask how payment is determined for SMS and for letter?

(E.g. does the provider fully/partially pay for the costs?!)
21 Aug, '23
Megan Archer, Product Manager
Hi Tom, the user gets billed for the use of SMS and letter, per communication. We have an item on our backlog to look into creating an interface where you can see what the costs are expected to be before sending communications.
It is part of our value proposition to save money for our users, by using the volumes of communications to strike better commercial deals with suppliers, and by taking away the overhead, per account, of procuring, managing and integrating with multiple suppliers. Please reach out to: nhsdigital.comms.manager@nhs.net if you'd like to discuss, or have any additional questions
18 Sep, '23
R
Can you work with GOV.UK Notify?
https://www.notifications.service.gov.uk/
It appears to have significant overlap - there may be no need for you to deal with suppliers at all.

For NHS use what's missing from gov.uk notify is app notifications, and the abstraction of contacting a person, instead of a specified set of contact details.

Accessibility should be mandatory - correspondence should be reflowable (html) and suitable for reading on mobile, accessible user agents and machine translation. It would be a mistake to further entrench paper-orientated formats (PDF).

Patients should have control of how their correspondence is delivered - this is an opportunity to improve care for those without an address.
02 Oct, '23
Megan Archer
Hi R, thank you for your message!

We do work with Gov.UK Notify, and they are one of our suppliers. We have multiple reasons for setting up Communications Manager in addition, one of which you mentioned is the linking with the NHS App. Another is more format options for communications, and another is less reliance on one supplier.
We also have the added value of linking to PDS, checking s-flags and exit codes etc.

Regarding accessibility, we are working with Mobile First to set some strategic views as to what we should offer across the NHS, and this is one of our key priorities.
However, we cannot completely get away form paper formats such as braille, and letters for though without digital options; this is all part of digital inclusion and accessibility.

We are also working closely with PDS on preferences for communications, so the final point is being looked at too.
20 Oct, '23
Tan Ahmed Admin
API is now in private beta: https://digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-catalogue/communications-manager