Email notifications

PKB sends out email notifications to your main email address. See Updating your Profile for details on changing your email address. The email notifications are designed to inform you about a change in your record, such as a new test result, but without including clinical information. Each message has a link to log into the page in PKB to see the relevant information securely. 

What email notifications do patients receive?

We will send you a notification if:

• Someone, such as a professional, sends you a message. A reminder email is also sent the next day if you haven't opened the message. 

• A new letter or document is added to your record e.g. discharge summaries or clinic letters.  

  • If you haven't opened the message containing your letter or document, a reminder email is sent at 6 am the next day.  Only one reminder is sent. 

• There are changes to the information in your record e.g. we receive new test results for you 

• Changes in sharing e.g. if there is a change to who has access to information in your record.

If you have been invited but have not registered yet, you will be notified about appointments, messages, consultations, plans, and changes to sharing.

What limits are placed on email notifications?

To avoid overwhelming you with messages PKB limits certain notifications by default.

However, there are time-sensitive updates that we think are important to notify you about every time they occur.

There is no limit applied on these:

• If someone sends you a message or a document

• If a new appointment is added or there is a change where the date of the appointment is in the future

• If a new plan is added or an existing plan is updated

• If there is a change to who has access to information in your record

• If you have an upcoming event (e.g. hospital admission or discharge)  

• If a new email address is added to your record

• If your password is reset

For all others updates we send a maximum of one notification a day. This includes changes to:

• Allergies

• Diagnoses

• Library links

• Measurements

• Medications

• Test results

• Files

• Journal

Please note no email notifications will be sent in the following scenarios:

• If the appointment date is in the past

• If a document is sent in where the document date is older than one week

• If GP data from the EMIS Extract Service is added to the record that is older than one week (unless a patient has not received a notification about their record containing EMIS data before)

• If a patient discharge is processed where the discharge date is older than one week

• Updates to demographics

How can I change my email notification preferences?

You can change your email notification preferences from the ‘Profile’ page in your record.

There are two options available:

1. Default: We send time-sensitive notifications and a maximum of one notification a day about other data added to your record. Read more about the default notification behaviour.

2. Time-sensitive only: We will only send you notifications about appointments, documents, messages, plans, questionnaires, sharing changes and password resets.

If you choose to set your email notification preference to ‘Time-sensitive only’, you will continue to receive email notifications about changes to the records of people that you care for. You will receive an email notification for every change made to their record.

What email address do the notifications come from?

Emails are sent from no-reply-uk@patientsknowbest.com.

SMS notifications

Organisations might ask PKB to send SMS notifications.

Organisations can choose to enable this feature for the following:

A new referral for an unregistered patient

PKB will only send SMS notifications for new referrals if all the following conditions are met: 

1. The organisation has enabled the SMS referral flow 

2. The organisation sent a new referral letter to the patient via HL7 (HL7 MDM T02 with the document type in TXA-2 marked as RL (Referral letter))

3. The patient’s record has a mobile number but the patient has not registered 

4. The patient is aged 16 or over

A new questionnaire for an unregistered patient (Coming Summer 2025)

PKB will only send SMS notifications for questionnaires if all the following conditions are met: 

1. The organisation has enabled the SMS questionnaire flow 

2. Patients is sent an Advanced Questionnaire.

3. The patient’s record has a mobile number but the patient has not registered 

4. SMS will be only be sent if a mobile number is recorded in the mobile field

5. The patient is aged 16 or over

Who is exempt from SMS?

SMS will not be sent if the patient:

• is under 16

• marked as deceased

• has a frozen record

• does not meet any of the qualifying requirements for an SMS to be sent (outlined for each flow above)

NHS App notifications

You can read about NHS App notifications on our NHS App & NHS login guide here

Patient notification table

The table below documents which notifications are sent to patients and when.

If an NHS App message about new data is read within 4 hours, a copy by email will not be sent.

Carer notifications

Carers are contacted by email only, only patients receive SMS or NHS App notifications.