NHSmail is available for free for all CQC registered care providers in England, who have met at least ‘approaching standards’ on the Data Security and Protection Toolkit.
There are many reasons that providers should have NHSmail email addresses:
1 – It is the email services for health and social care professionals, and it is provided and maintained for free.
2 – It looks great to your prospective customers if your email service ends with NHS.net (shows you are linked into the local system and working with NHS).
3 – Hospital trusts may soon only communicate with NHSmail email addresses (e.g. discharge and care package emails).
4 – NHSmail is far more secure than other types of email systems – this means you will avoid a large GDPR fine from a data breach.
5 – NHSmail is required to draw upon the Digital Transformation Funding (DTF).
Important information
If you require NHSmail, please be aware the process can sometimes take a couple of weeks to set up access.
You need to know:
- Your CQC Registered Manager ID and
- The registered manager email address that is recorded with CQC and have access to emails sent to that address to be able to complete the process.
If you do not know one or both of these (e.g. they have not been updated or if there has been a change in manager / manager’s email address and you have not informed CQC of this change), that is when the process may take longer to complete.
Please contact dataprotection@hcpa.co.uk / 01707 708018 if you need support with NHSmail.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must have published your Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) in order to be eligible for this FREE secure email service.