Hammersmith and Fulham PCT use SMS to help smokers quit

Wednesday 14th October 2009

GP practices in NHS Hammersmith and Fulham have used text messaging to collect information on patients’ smoking status and invite patients for smoking cessation advice.

The primary care trust used iPlato’s Patient Care messaging system to send text messages to 6,085 patients from 22 surgeries requesting a patient’s smoking status.

Of those patients, 45% responded to the request with a valid status with one practice receiving valid responses from 57% of patients sent the message. Replies came back as an email to the GP surgery.

The PCT found that 80% of respondents replied with three hours of receiving the message and 95% within 24 hours.

Find out more about using SMS to quit smoking