East London Getting Sexual Health Clinic Test Results By Text On Their Mobile Phones

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 01 Dec 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Patients in East London are now choosing to receive the results of their sexual health clinic tests by text message on their mobile phones.

The new telephone texting service from Ambrose King Sexual Health Clinic at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, informs patients of their results within a week of their visit to the clinic. Before, it could take up to three weeks before patients heard the news.

Texts that patients receive can include:

-- "Message from Ambrose King Centre. All your test results are OK. No further action needed."

-- "Message from Ambrose King Centre. Herpes Type 1 found. All other results OK.

-- Ring 000 0000 0000 to attend for treatment."

-- "Message form Ambrose King Centre. Your next Hepatitis blood test is now due.

-- Ring 000 0000 to book a nurse appointment or walk-in".

George Matchett, Deputy Head of Sexual Health Advising at Ambrose King said: "Patients love this new faster way of communicating and 99 per cent of those we see carry mobile phones. If patients choose, we text them. If not, they can walk in to receive results one week later. Texting is a really effective way of getting people to contact us because in the first week of doing this we've noticed people quickly phone back to either clarify the message details or arrange to come in.

"We can now manage patients and their infections more effectively. We also have a fail safe mechanism where we can tell whether a mobile phone text message has been received."

Now the clinic can turn most results round in a week and it is aiming for a new target of 72 hours. In turn the process has freed up staff at the clinic from arduous administration and only one member of staff needs to send out texts during the week.

A positive HIV test result would not be texted and instead the patient is asked to return to the clinic to discuss their results. A negative HIV test result would be texted as: "Your blood test result was negative."

Any patients judged to have been exposed to high risk of sexually transmitted infections are not texted their results but told to return to the clinic and receive the results face-to- face.

Mr Matchett added: "Sex related infections are rising all the time and our remit in Sexual Health is to stop the spread of infection. By getting results to patients more quickly, they can act on it faster, and can inform their partners too so they too can come straight into the clinic and get treated.

The texting service started at Ambrose King this month (November) after running successfully for a year at Barts Sexual Health Centre. In a typical year, both walk-in clinics will see around 55,000 patients.

The Ambrose King Centre and Barts Sexual Health Centre, part of Barts and The London NHS Trust, are open Monday to Friday and offer a free, confidential service with no appointment necessary.

It is important to remember that most people infected with a sexually transmitted infection have no symptoms so we recommend that if you've put yourself at risk you come for a screen. Patients who have no symptoms can drop in and be seen within 30 minutes receiving tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea(a simple self swab or urine test), syphilis and HIV (a blood test) plus free condoms.

For more details visit the website on: sexualhealth

Barts and London NHS
http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk