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• Appointment reminder emails are schedule scheduled to go live late June/early July 2026.

• Appointment reminders will be sent by default. Reminders will only be disabled if the organisation that created the appointment has specifically requested that they are not sent.

• An email reminder will be sent to patients and their carers 7 days and 2 days before their scheduled appointment.

• The link in the email will take the patient or carer to the appointment details in the patient's record

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• Appointment reminder emails will be sent to both registered and unregistered patients, provided a valid email address is available in their record.

• If the patient has not yet registered, the appointment reminder email will include information on how to register so they can access their appointment details.

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Future enhancements for appointment reminders

PKB can already send Notifications & Messages (N&M) in the NHS App for appointment activity, which includes sending an NHS App message and an associated native Apple or Android push notification. 

Later in 2026 we plan to expand our existing Notifications & Messages (N&M) in the NHS App for appointment activity, to include sending appointment reminders via Notifications & Messages in the NHS App.

User Journey

• Patients will receive an appointment reminder message in the NHS App message inbox alongside an associated push notification. 

• Clicking on the push notification will take the patient through the authentication process to open the NHS app and then go straight to the message in the NHS App Messaging inbox. 

• The message will contain a summary of the appointment reminder and a link to view the appointment. 

• Clicking on the link will take the user to the PKB ‘View appointment’ page inside the NHS app.

  • Unregistered users will be required to register before accessing the appointment details.

Email notification fallback

1. If the message sent to the NHS App is read within 4 hours of sending, PKB will NOT send an email notification

2. PKB will send an email if:

   1. We receive a ‘rejected’ or ‘un-notified’ status 

   2. We don’t receive a ‘notified’ status within 1 hour

   3. If the NHS App message has not been opened within 4 hours

SMS notifications

Organisations might ask PKB to send SMS notifications.

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