Our new digital Patient Hub
Last year, we launched a new way for you to receive information about your appointments and care in our hospitals. Our new digital Patient Hub allows you to view your appointment details online, see copies of letters and other information related to your care and treatment, and confirm or cancel appointments and referrals.
We began trialling the Patient Hub on Thursday 10 August 2023 for patients in our orthotics service and have been adding more services since then. Please see a full list below of the services and clinics that have been made available on our digital Patient Hub so far:
| Service | Description | Date added |
| Orthotics | Provide prescription insoles, braces, footwear, spinal jackets and helmets to patients to recover from or avoid injury | Thursday 10 August 2023 |
| Dermatology | Provides patients with treatment for a wide variety of skin, hair and nail conditions | Thursday 19 October 2023 |
| Urology | Specialise in patients with diseases of the urinary and genital tract, including the prostate, bladder, kidney, testis and penis | Thursday 25 January 2024 |
| Plastic surgery | Provides treatment for skin cancer cases and treat a number of other conditions which require the input of plastic and reconstructive surgeons | Thursday 15 February 2024 |
| Haematology | Provides treatment for a range of blood disorders and diseases | Wednesday 21 February 2024 |
| General Surgery | Provides treatment for patients with hernias, lipoma, appendicitis, gallstones, unexpected weight loss and ingestion | Wednesday 21 February 2024 |
| Vascular Surgery | Provide treatment for issues affecting the circulation, including disease of the arteries and veins | Wednesday 21 February 2024 |
| Colorectal Surgery | Provide treatment for health problems relating to the gastrointestinal tract, rectum, anus and colon | Wednesday 21 February 2024 |
| Ear, nose and throat (ENT) | Provides treatment for health issues relating to the ear, nose or throat | Thursday 7 March 2024 |
| Stroke | Provides treatment and support for patients who have suffered a stroke | Thursday 7 March 2024 |
| Renal dietetics | Provides support to patients with kidney conditions, offering guidance with their food and drink choices | Thursday 7 March 2024 |
| Mount Vernon Cancer Centre private patients | This service supports patients at Mount Vernon who choose to fund treatment their themselves or pay via health insurance. | Thursday 21 March 2024 |
| Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) | Part of our stroke department, this service offers treatment for those who have suffered a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or a ‘mini stroke’, caused by a temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain. | Thursday 28 March 2024 |
| Neurology | Provides treatment for disorders of the nervous system, including epilepsy, headache and migraine, and neuromuscular. | Thursday 28 March 2024 |
| Renal medicine (Nephrology) | Provides dialysis and other treatment to patients with kidney problems and other renal-related issues. | Thursday 18 April 2024 |
| Trauma and orthopaedics (T&O) | Diagnose and treat conditions of the musculoskeletal system, including bones and joints and structures that enable movement such as ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves. | Thursday 16 May 2024 |
| Dietetic prehabilitation therapy | Provides dietary guidance to patients undergoing treatment for cancer. | Thursday 23 May 2024 |
| Cardiothoracic surgery | Provides treatment for diseases affecting organs within the thorax (the chest), principally the heart, lungs and oesophagus. | Thursday 18 July 2024 |
If you have an upcoming appointment with one of these services, you may receive a text message from ‘NHS-NoReply’ notifying you about your appointment with an option to sign-in to our Patient Hub (please note that not all the clinics within the services listed above have been added. If you’re a patient in one of these services and you are in a clinic that has been added to our Patient Hub, you will receive a link to your account via text message).
Patient Hub is not available for our paediatrics patients at this time, and only patients over the age of 18 will be contacted with a link to their account.
Patients can also use this service to confirm or cancel outstanding hospital referrals.
Patients waiting over 12 weeks on a referral who have not had an appointment in the last 12 weeks and do not have a booked appointment in the next 4 weeks will be sent a text message with a link to the Patient Hub. This will allow patients to confirm if they still need an appointment, or to cancel the referral if they no longer need this appointment.
How it works
Whenever we make an outpatient appointment for you or make a change to an existing appointment, we will send you a text message with links to the information on the digital Patient Hub.
You will be able to use the service to check your appointments and to receive and download appointment letters and other information, such as leaflets about your condition, maps to explain where to come for your appointment or questionnaires about your symptoms and medical history.
How to sign in to the Patient Hub
If you have an upcoming appointment with a service which is available on the digital Patient Hub, you will receive a text message from ‘NHS-NoReply’ notifying about your appointment as normal. On this next page, you will receive a link to the Patient Hub sign in page, and you can then follow the steps to access the service (see details for this in our frequently asked question section below).
Help us to help you
Do we have your up-to-date contact details, including your mobile number? We will use these to send you a link to sign in to the digital Patient Hub. If you need to update your contact details, you can let us know by calling the number on your most recent appointment letter.
You can still receive appointment letters and information by post if that’s your preference
Using the digital Patient Hub is completely optional, and you will still receive paper letters and other information by post.
What you can do on the digital Patient Hub
Current features:
- Check the date, time and location of your upcoming outpatient appointments
- See copies of letters from us about your care
- Receive messages from the service or services providing your care
- Cancel appointments and request for them to be rescheduled
We plan to add more features to the Patient Hub, which we will announce in due time.
Frequently asked questions
No. We will automatically enrol you onto the digital Patient Hub, and will also continue to communicate with you by post and phone as we do now. Once you login to the service, you will be able to see your outpatient appointment details, letters and other information online.
When we make a new outpatient appointment for you, or change an existing outpatient appointment, we will send you a text message with a link to the digital Patient Hub:
- Click on the link, which will take you to the Patient Hub sign-in screen
- Confirm your mobile number and date of birth
- You will then receive a 6-digit authentication code from ‘NHS-NoReply’
- Enter the code once you receive it
Note: Once you receive the authentication code, you have approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds to submit this. You can however request that the code is resent or a new code provided 3 times, after which you may need to wait 1 minute before requesting a new code or, if the link is disabled, you will need to return to the initial sign in screen and start the sign in process again.
Don’t worry, you can still access the Patient Hub by clicking here.
- Click on the link, which will take you to the Patient Hub sign-in screen
- Confirm your mobile number and date of birth
- You will then receive a 6-digit authentication code from ‘NHS-NoReply’
- Enter the code once you receive it
Note: Once you receive the authentication code, you have approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds to submit this. You can however request that the code is resent or a new code provided 3 times, after which you may need to wait 1 minute before requesting a new code or, if the link is disabled, you will need to return to the initial sign in screen and start the sign in process again.
No. You will still receive letters and information about your care by post.
To begin with, you will be able to see your outpatient appointments and clinic letters. As we add more features to the digital Patient Hub, you will be able to see more information about your care.
We are planning for most of our outpatient services to go live on the digital Patient Hub over the next few months. As this happens, you will be able to use the service to see information about your appointments and care from different services as they go live.
Yes, you will need to sign into for the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust Patient Hub in order to see letters and information about your care with us.
Patient Hub can be used by anyone aged 18 or over who has an appointment at any of our hospitals, as long as the service has been made available on our digital Patient Hub. When it launches, orthotics will be the only service available on the Patient Hub, with the aim for other services to be added over the coming months.
No. At this time, only one person can be registered to a Patient Hub account and it must be the patient themselves rather than someone signing up for the service on behalf of a family member.
However, if your mobile number has been added to another patient’s electronic record (which would be the case for someone in your care), you will receive text notifications for any appointments that are booked for them. When signing into the Patient hub, you will need to use your mobile number and their date of birth. Once these have been verified, you will receive the 6-digit authentication code.
In the case of siblings who share the same date of birth, you will need to enter the 3-letter code contained within the original appointment notification text message before being provided with the 6-digit authentication code.
The digital Patient Hub is not available for Children under 18.
A parent or guardian cannot register on behalf of their child at this time, but we can still provide patient letters and other information via post to patients and guardians on behalf of children under 18, as is the current process.
Yes, you can sign in for and view the digital Patient Hub on a computer or tablet. We will send you a six-digit authentication code by text message from ‘NHS-NoReply’ which can be picked up on a standard mobile phone. Due to the authorisation process, you cannot sign in to for Patient Hub without authorising your account via text message
If you are unable to sign into our digital Patient Hub you will still receive patient letters and other information via post.
You can choose to not receive appointment notifications via the Profile tile in the Patient Hub. You will however still receive appointment reminders via text message. To stop all text messages, you will need to telephone the booking team using the number at the top of your appointment letter and they will be able to change your contact preferences for you.
Your most recent appointment letter will have full details of the type of appointment you have and any additional instructions. Just find and view the letter on the digital Patient Hub. If you are still unsure, contact the team who are caring for you using the contact details on your appointment letter
If you see information in the hub about you or your treatment which you think isn’t right, please contact the team or service who are caring for you so that we can correct it. You can find the phone number on your most recent patient letter.
When we add a new service to our Patient Hub, we do this by adding specific clinics within each service. For some of our larger services, this needs to be done gradually. If you are a patient that uses on of the services listed above and you haven’t received a text message about Patient Hub, this may be because you are in a clinic that we have not yet made available on the Patient Hub.
Yes, you can now cancel appointments and request for them to be rescheduled via the Patient Hub.
To do this, login to your account and select your next available appointment.
To rebook an appointment, select the ‘rebook’ button, and then select ‘confirm’. Your appointment will then be cancelled and we will contact you with a new appointment as soon as this has been rebooked. If you’d like to cancel an appointment, select the ‘cancel’ button, and then select ‘confirm’. Your appointment will then be cancelled and will not be rebooked.
Please note that more than two consecutive cancellations for an appointment may results in you being discharged from the hospital, in which case you may need to contact your GP to be provided with another referral. Some patients may have more than one active referral, and the other referrals will not be affected if this occurs.
Patients may be contacted via a text message to confirm or cancel an outstanding referral using the Patient Hub.
Patients waiting over 12 weeks on a Referral To Treatment (RTT) pathway who have not had an appointment in the last 12 weeks and do not have a booked appointment in the next 4 weeks, now have the option to confirm or cancel their referral via our digital Patient Hub.
Patients on a waiting list for an outstanding referral will receive a text message with a link to the digital Patient Hub, which will allow them to be removed from the waiting list if they no longer need the referral, or to remain on the list if they still need their appointment.
Yes. If you choose not to sign-in when we first invite you, you will still receive a text reminder with a link to sign-in and also a new text notification for any future outpatient appointments, unless you choose to opt out of receiving text messages.
If you decide that you no longer wish to use the digital Patient Hub, you can cancel your account by following these steps:
- Log into your account
- Select profile
- Unselect SMS and Email
- Select confirm
- Follow the instructions presented on the screen
If you decide to delete your East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust Patient Hub account, you will also be given an option to stop text messages being sent to you.
If you choose this, you will not receive text appointment reminders and further texts inviting you to re-join the digital Patient Hub when new appointments are scheduled.
Appointment letters and any reminders will all be sent by post, and you will also receive a text confirmation at the end of the process which explains how to opt back into receiving text messages if you change your mind later.
