NHSmail: The Secure Email Service for Health and Care
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NHSmail is the secure email system endorsed by the UK Department of Health for sharing sensitive patient information within health and social care organizations. It provides email, calendar, contacts and SMS services to over half a million staff across the NHS in England and Scotland. NHSmail is managed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre and offers benefits such as security, reliability, flexibility and cost savings compared to alternative email systems.
NHSmail: The Secure Email Service for Health and Care
- 1. NHSmail The secure email service for health and care www.hscic.gov.uk 0845 300 6016 enquiries@hscic.gov.uk NHSmail is the only NHS email system accredited to ‘Government RESTRICTED’ standard and endorsed by the Department of Health and other professional bodies for the purposes of sharing sensitive patient information. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is commissioned by NHS England and the Department of Health to manage informatics projects and programmes that support clinical decision making, NHS working practice and improved patient outcomes. NHSmail is one of the systems we manage. It provides a secure email, calendar, directory, fax and SMS service to the NHS in England and Scotland. Who can use NHSmail? NHSmail is available for use by any organisation commissioned to deliver NHS healthcare, public health or adult social care services or who have a business need to communicate securely with NHS colleagues. This includes NHS organisations, as well as Public Health, Social Care, Community Pharmacies, Dentists, Opticians and other independent care providers who deliver care to NHS patients. More than half a million staff use NHSmail on a daily basis. User numbers continue to grow as more organisations choose NHSmail as their preferred email service. How can I use NHSmail? Anyone with an email account ending @nhs.net is already using NHSmail. If you need to use NHSmail, just ask your usual IT Helpdesk to provide you an account. They’ll set it up for you if your organisation is already registered to use NHSmail. If your organisation doesn’t already use NHSmail and wants to use it, see our website for details on how to join www.hscic.gov.uk/nhsmail What’s next for NHSmail? NHSmail has been identified as a Strategic System by NHS England and the Department of Health. It is scheduled to be refreshed and significantly upgraded during 2014-15 and will then continue as a national service until at least 2019. Organisations can adopt NHSmail with confidence knowing it is already the secure email system of choice of the majority of NHS organisations, and a key long term strategic part of the NHS national systems estate. Visit our website for more details on the future plans for NHSmail www.hscic.gov.uk/nhsmail Copyright © 2014 Health and Social Care Information Centre 1 We are the trusted national provider of high-quality information, data and IT systems for health and social care.
- 2. NHSmail does everything you would expect a modern business-critical email system to do, with some additional benefits: It’s secure • Emails within NHSmail, or sent to other secure email systems, are protected to UK Government standards. This ensures that sensitive and confidential information is kept safe. • All NHSmail users sign up to a code of use when they register to agree that they will use the system appropriately and maintain its security. • NHSmail users are protected by sophisticated anti-virus and anti-spam software. • NHSmail is endorsed by the British Medical Association (BMA), the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) for the transfer of clinical information. • NHSmail’s security credentials are also recognised by other specialist security organisations including Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Police and the Ministry of Defence. It saves money • Because NHSmail is secure, it can be used to replace more expensive paper or telephone based communication processes thereby saving money that can be better used for patient care. • NHSmail is funded centrally by the Department of Health so, unlike alternative email systems, it is free of charge to local organisations. It’s reliable • Because the NHS works day and night so does NHSmail. Our helpdesk is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to make sure that users have access to their account whenever they need it. • NHSmail runs across duplicated secure data centres – just like other major global organisations for whom the security and safety of information is critical. It’s flexible • As NHSmail is a national service users can share calendars and folders with any other users on the system even if they are in different organisations. You can look up the contact details of more than one million NHS and business partner staff in the NHSmail directory. • When organisations merge, or an individual moves from one NHS organisation to another, NHSmail users can simply carry on using their accounts at their new organisation without their IT teams have having to migrate them between different email systems at significant cost • You can access NHSmail from common smartphones, tablet devices, workplace computers, home computers or internet cafés, wherever you are in the world. If your mobile device is lost or stolen, you can remotely erase any emails on it, keeping confidential information safe. • NHSmail integrates seamlessly with the software installed on the vast majority of PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets. It can also integrate with other applications, for example to send automated emails from Clinical systems. You can even use NHSmail to send texts to mobile phones and messages to fax machines. Why use NHSmail? Copyright © 2014 Health and Social Care Information Centre 2 www.hscic.gov.uk 0845 300 6016 enquiries@hscic.gov.uk