Yes. The patient portal is a software provided by East Kent Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust The portal meets rigorous NHS requirements for health record systems and is fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Identification is provided through the NHS App and is fully secure.
Once you have registered, future correspondence from the Trust will start to be available within the portal, such as appointment letters.
There are still some departments within the Hospital which are yet to use the Trusts electronic mail provider and there may also be times where you need to receive additional items such as hearing aids or leaflets – on both of these occasions you will receive your letter in the post instead.
Yes, you will be able to log into the portal at any time to amend how you wish to receive your correspondence, and which format.
The portal is an optional service to provide choice to patients who wish to interact with the hospital in a digital format, and requires you to ‘opt-in’.
If you do not wish to use the portal, you can choose not to sign up and continue to receive your hospital correspondence in the usual way. This will not affect the care that you receive from the Trust.
Patient letters can be accessed on computers, tablets and smartphones (Android and iOS).
An email will be sent to inform that a letter is available on the portal. If this is not accessed within a period of time the letter will be sent in the post.
Our first priority is to ensure you receive your letter. In the event of an email failing to send, you will be automatically unsubscribed from the service and the failed letter will be resent in the post to your place of residence (as recorded on our Patient Administration System).
The level of information you have within the patient portal is in relation to the level of ID verification you have successfully completed with your NHS Login.
To access your letters, you will need to have completed the High-Level ID Checks on NHS Login.
Although it is not there at present, we will be providing this capability in the future.
