Ways effective email comms can help reduce winter pressures on NHS

In the winter months, many health conditions such as respiratory diseases e.g. asthma, can be caused or worsened by cold weather. This combined with higher incidences coming under ‘seasonal illness’ including flu and viruses simply means the NHS often faces much greater pressure. This effects the NHS both in the community, including local GPs and pharmacies as well as secondary care in hospitals. 

By focussing on prevention and giving people the information and support they need to manage their own health better, communications campaigns can play a key role in helping more people stay well in winter and avoid the need for acute care services – especially visits to A&E. 

So as an NHS or healthcare organisation, how exactly can effective email comms help to reduce this burden? Well, you may be surprised at the number of ways it can help. The only thing you will need for these methods to be highly effective is a list of engaged subscribers, whether this is a list you have grown organically or through the support of local authority newsletter readership. 

1. Boosting the uptake in immunisations and jabs 

There are many vaccinations the NHS offer, over the winter period this is particularly relevant with the flu vaccine. With the use of effective email comms, you can deliver campaigns to staff, patients and any members of the public that are eligible for the vaccines.  

Doing so will help ensure more members of the public are protected this winter, so the number of enquiries and appointments for these health issues will lower. 

Here at e-shot we create several email templates for key NHS campaigns including winter vaccinations, see all our email library campaigns here.

2. Promoting online services 

According to Statista, the latest findings suggest 98% of the UK population has some form of internet access, with 95% of households having access to the internet. 

From all the time spent on the internet, around 77% of that time is done so via a smartphone device. 

The above statistics suggest you should be using various online channels to promote your online services, whether that be general help sites, online health services or an online booking system.  

Promoting online services on various online channels and through email and SMS will hopefully help to reduce the need for calls and face-to-face appointments as people are able to find legitimate information on how to manage and find solutions to various health issues. 

3. Ensuring patients turn up for appointments 

It is important patients turn up for their booked appointments as not only is it a waste of a doctor's time if no one shows up, someone else could have taken the appointment. 

Similarly to the above, most of the UK population have access to a mobile device and internet access. So again, you can promote the importance that people turn up to their appointments and or cancel/reschedule them in a timely manner. 

Also to help ensure people do turn up, you can either send email comms, or in this instance a 1-to-1 SMS message would likely work better. A reminder text can be sent 1 week, 1 day and the morning of the appointment for example. 

4. Staff communications  

Over the winter, it is important to promote various updates to staff members and the general public. So, ensure to keep them up to date with what's going on, whether that be a vaccination that is available for key workers or if there are any events going on. 

Sending staff comms over the winter period doesn't directly affect the potential burden on the NHS but you want to empower your staff members and prompt them to pass relevant information onto their friends and family or even promote/share information on their own socials. 

According to The Kings Fund, around 1.5 million people are currently employed by the NHS, if every one of those staff members promotes a relevant piece of information to 1 other person, then that's a lot of people who now something they may not have before! 

Effective email communications allow for quicker internal communication between healthcare staff, departments and external stakeholders such as pharmacies. Ensuring everyone involved is on the same page, reducing the need for physical meetings and phone calls. 

Email comms can also be used to share information about staff wellbeing initiatives, mental health support or share resources for work-life balance. Which can help to improve morale and reduce burnout among workers. 

Regular email newsletters can celebrate staff achievements, highlight good work and create a community, helping to create a positive working environment. 

5. Cost reduction 

Email communications can be used in replace of letters and printed materials, thus reducing your printing and mailing costs as well as contributing to environmental sustainability. 

Furthermore, email automation can be used in some instances such as appointment confirmations, this can free up staff time and allow more time for those more critical tasks. 

6. Crisis management 

In emergencies or health crises e.g. during COVID-19, email is one of the fastest ways to promote critical information and guidelines to staff, patients and the public. 

Real time updates about outbreaks, resource shortages or urgent medical advisories can quickly be shared again with the use of effective email comms. Once example here, could be the urgent need for various blood type donations needed. 

7. General communication/updates 

Further to all the above points, there may be other pieces of information you feel the need to share, whether that be internally or externally. 

Ultimately there are no restrictions on what you can share via mass email, so if you think it will benefit your audiences, then go ahead and share it. 

The only information you should not be sharing with your mass audiences is the information of a singular person/patient. This should only be used if the email is going to only that person. 

Here at e-shot we have several NHS and healthcare customers. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you, you can find out more here or feel free to request a demo of the platform with our team to discover how we can help you. 

e-shot customer or not, be sure to check out our email library, where we design several key emails for campaigns including ones for the NHS. Examples include Stoptober, Blood donation, Child immunisation and more. Find all the the campaigns and download the emails here.