Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of NHS letters regarding (a) appointments and (b) test results received late by patients in Lincolnshire.

The Government is putting patients first, making sure they are seen as quickly as possible and have the best possible experience, which includes receiving timely communication regarding appointments and test results.

We are reforming the digital landscape to improve productivity, communication, and to offer greater convenience for National Health Service users, including changing the NHS App to make it easier and more helpful for patients to access information about their appointments. 87% of acute trusts in England now allow patients to view appointment information via the NHS App if they wish, reducing reliance on physical letters. Expanding the use of the NHS App has prevented over 1.5 million missed hospital appointments since July 2024. It also saves staff time, so they can focus on providing high quality, non-digital communication for those who want or need it.

We will also build on the success of digitising appointment letters by making more types of content about patients’ treatment available on the NHS App, such as discharge letters, by December 2025.

We do not hold data on the number of NHS letters for appointments and test results that have been received late by patients in Lincolnshire in 2024 and 2025.

NHS providers in Lincolnshire are working towards a patient engagement portal which allows patients to access correspondence electronically. If patients enable this function, notifications are sent to patients to allow them to log in to see any information in real time.

There is also a process in place to telephone all patients that have had an appointment booked less than two weeks in advance, to ensure they have received sufficient notice of their appointments.