Appointment reminder service being rolled out

Appointment reminder service rolled out

A new text message appointment reminder service is being rolled out across GP practices in the Rochdale borough.

The service, called MJog, reminds patients about upcoming appointments with the GP or nurse and also gives them the opportunity to cancel or rearrange appointments if necessary – freeing up appointments for other patients.

MJog has been rolled out across 35 of NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s GP practices since November 2016 and was introduced to improve the availability of appointments for patients and reduce the number of wasted appointments.

NHS HMR CCG Chairman and local GP, Chris Duffy, said: “It is important for patients to see the relevant GP, nurse or other health care professional in the shortest possible time and GP practices across Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale do their best to accommodate as many patients as they can.

“We know that some people miss appointments for a variety of reasons - from forgetting the date to failing to inform us they no longer need the appointment - but this has consequences, including longer waiting times at GP surgeries for other patients, people not getting the care they need when they need it, and wasted resources.

“By reminding people about upcoming appointments, and offering the option to cancel or rearrange them if needed, the new MJog service will help GPs to see more patients, more quickly.”

MJog is a free service and patients are not charged for receiving or responding to text messages.

Patients who do not wish to receive a text message reminder can opt of the service by letting their GP surgery know.