Protections on NHS letter delivery agreed between Royal Mail, NHS leaders and patient bodies
Royal Mail, NHS England, NHS Providers, Healthwatch England, National Voices, and the Patients Association have written an open letter to Ofcom highlighting the introduction of new protections to ensure reliable and efficient postal service for NHS patients.
The postal regulator has today closed its public consultation to reform the universal postal delivery service, with changes to be announced this summer.
Since the beginning of the consultation, Healthwatch England have worked with Royal Mail and NHS and patient organisations to ensure that proposed changes improve timely delivery of NHS letters.
The improvements include:
- A new Royal Mail NHS-specific barcode to support mail delivery teams ensures that NHS letters are delivered on time, including at times of service disruptions. Once implemented, the barcode will replace manual extraction of NHS letters and be used to locate NHS letters where Royal Mail is not meeting expected delivery standards.
- A new briefing for NHS organisations to increase awareness and uptake of the variety of Royal Mail services for the timely delivery of NHS letters.
Louise Ansari, Chief Executive at Healthwatch England:
“We have been delighted to work with Royal Mail and other health partners to make sure that people’s experiences of delayed letters have been listened to and addressed. Delayed delivery of letters is a frustrating admin issue people share with us. Recent research shows that 1 in 5 people received an invitation to an appointment by letter or text after the date of their appointment [3].
“Whether missing important appointments or vital test results, letters arriving late can be a patient safety risk, and often puts the burden on people to chase essential communications themselves. We hope these changes lead to improvements for patients and NHS teams.”
