GP practices and other NHS providers are being requested to exclusively use ‘NHSNoReply’ and block other variations by 5 November 2024, the latest primary care bulletin has said.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is updating guidance to reduce the number of SMS SenderID variations, ensuring they reflect the service consumed and minimising the risk of blocked messages.
The primary care bulletin said that there were currently several different versions of the NHSNoReply SMS sender ID, such as NHS noreply, NHS NOREPLY, and NHS-NoReply.
It said the number of variations made it difficult for patients to identify genuine messages, which increases the risk that they will block messages.
It also said that the number of versions was a cyber security risk.
Criminals can pose as legitimate NHS senders, mimicking the communications or concealing malicious links to enable fraudulent activity.
In May, the Government said that messaging patients via the NHS App rather than using texts has saved the health service more than £1m in the past year.
In 2023/24, 22.5 million messages were sent through the NHS App in England – these would previously have been sent as a text message or letter.
The average cost of sending a text message is around 5p, which represents a saving of at least £1.1m, NHS England said.
It is estimated that around £450m is spent annually on communication activity with patients.
People switching on notifications in the NHS App have their messages automatically sent through that software, so it’s less costly than a text and more secure, NHS England explained.
For more information on SMS sender guidance, visit the NCSC website or contact the telecoms team.
