We work in partnership with DrDoctor to provide an interactive messaging service. It is designed to make it easier for you to manage your appointments and improve communications between you and Northumbria Healthcare.
Appointment reminders
Patients who have provided us with a private mobile phone number and email will receive information about their appointments via e-mail and/or text messages from
Patients we do not have a mobile phone number for will still receive a paper letter.
If you are not able to or have difficulties accessing the Portal you can give consent to a family member or carer to do this for you. You will need their consent and let us know their private email address and telephone/mobile number.
Some text messages you receive from us may require a response or for you to follow a link to manage your appointment or to collect clinical information. Please read these messages carefully and contact
Protecting your information
To allow us to deliver this service, our partner DrDoctor will have strictly limited access to your contact details, but not to other information about your healthcare.
DrDoctor is accredited to the highest standards set by the NHS for protecting the healthcare information of UK citizens and is already being used by over 30 NHS trusts.
Learn how we use and protect your health information and read DrDoctor’s privacy policy.
Fraud prevention: patients should take note that we will never ask you for your bank or credit card details.
Find out more
For more information about the service, see the DrDoctor website.
Digital letters
We have a digital letter service across the trust for outpatient appointments.
Using this service, you will be able to view and download your appointment letters quicker and easier than before on your mobile phone, tablet or computer. We have partnered with DrDoctor, a digital health company, to deliver this service.
We will send you a reminder by text or email, depending on what you’ve asked us to do with an drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc link to your letter.
If you don’t read your letter on the Patient Portal within 72 hours, a letter will be posted to you automatically. Patients who prefer paper letters can still receive their letters by post as usual.
Find out more
View our digital letter leaflet here.
To access our secure Patient Portal, we need your correct contact details on our system.
It is possible that we do not have your correct mobile number or email address.
Please contact us and check we have your correct:
- Full name
- Date of Birth
- Postcode
- Mobile phone number
- Email address
1. We’ll send you a text message when you have a new digital letter to view online.
2. Click the link in your text message drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc to go to your secure patient portal.
3. Click ‘View letter’ and log in with your last name, date of birth and postcode.
4. View and download your new digital letter online as a PDF. Your letters will be stored here for future reference.
5. You can login from any device by visiting drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc When using a different device, we will send a code to your mobile phone number for security.
Patients who prefer paper letters can still receive their letters by post as usual.
We will automatically send you a paper letter if you don’t view your digital letter.
If you want to view your letter online and receive a paper letter by post, you can request a paper letter by:
1. Logging into your secure patient portal, going to the ‘Settings’ tab in the top right, and turn off the paperless option.
2. Reply PRINT to your text message notifying you that you have a new digital letter.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) - appointment reminders
Please help us by letting the contact centre on 0344 811 8118 or a member of clinic staff know if you change your mobile phone number and/or your email address.
Text message replies will be free if patients have a text message bundle with their provider. Otherwise, they will be charged at their provider’s standard rate.
You can also request to change and cancel your appointment online for free by following the link in your text messages or using: drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk
There are several reasons why you may not be able to request to change or cancel your appointment. We’ve listed a few below.
- It is too close to your appointment.
- This service is not available in the specialty where you have your appointment
- If you need transport assistance for your appointment
- If you need a translator for your appointment
In these circumstances please contact us on the phone number in your text message or on the online Patient Portal.
Please note that the facility to request to change or cancel appointments via text (07860039092) or the portal- drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk is not available to all specialties.
It is possible that we do not have your correct contact details. Please contact 0344 811 81118 and check we have your correct:
- Full name
- Date of Birth
- Postcode
- Mobile phone number
If you’ve been on a waiting list for 12 weeks or more for your first appointment with us, you will receive a text message from 07860 039092 or email from no.
Please reply to let us know if you still need your appointment.
The two options will be ‘Yes’, to remain on the waiting list and ‘No’, to be discharged safely back to the care of your GP. If you do not reply, you will remain on the waiting list.
We regularly contact patients to check that they still require their appointment, as we find that sometimes patients get better and no longer need to be seen.
Your response will help us to manage our waiting lists and see those that need an appointment as quickly as we can.
We will send you reminders by email and SMS text. You can also personalise how you receive information from us. If we have your mobile log onto the Portal at drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk and update your preferences in the settings menu by selecting either email or text reminders.
If you do not have access to the internet or a phone you will receive a printed copy of your hospital appointment letter.
You can also reply STOP to any message that you receive, which will end text and email message reminders.
If you have accidently ended message reminders by replying STOP, you can receive these reminders again by replying UNSTOP to the last message you received from us.
We will send you reminders by email and SMS text. If you would like to receive reminders by email only, you can log in to drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk and change your setting to email.
We use your mobile number and email to send you appointment confirmation messages, appointment cancellation messages and reminders about your upcoming appointments. Our trusted partner – DrDoctor – will send a text message or email with the details of your appointment.
We also use your email and mobile number as part of our secure log in for the online patient portal to access video consultations and your healthcare appointments.
To enable us to deliver this service, DrDoctor will have access to your contact information but not to detailed information about your health.
DrDoctor is accredited to the highest standards set by the NHS for protecting the healthcare information of UK citizens. For more information, see the https://
Frequently asked questions - digital letters
If your appointment has just been booked, please be aware it can take up to 24 hours for your appointment to appear on the online Portal.
We are introducing digital letters to allow us to:
- Let you view you letters quickly and easily
- Reduce confusion from lost letters or letters arriving in the wrong order
- Save the NHS money by reducing the amount of paper and stamps we are using
- Reduce our environmental impact.
We have now rolled out this service in departments across the trust.
You can go back to receiving paper letters at any time by logging in to DrDoctor via drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc and updating your letter preferences.
You can also opt out of all text messages by replying ‘STOP’ to the most recent text message.
All of our digital letter invites come from the same mobile phone number: 07860 039 092.
The link to view your digital letter starts with drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc
This is usually due to the trust having the wrong contact details for patients on our patient administration system.
Please check we have your correct last name, date of birth, postcode, mobile number and email address.
We sync with DrDoctor regularly so these details will work for patients trying to log in soon.
This could be because:
- the letter is for a family member or relative who is registered with the same phone number or email with the hospital
- you are a patient at more than one NHS trust and when you logged in, you chose the wrong trust portal to log in to (DrDoctor support a number of hospital trusts across the country).
You can add your email address via the patient portal, under the "Settings" menu, to receive email reminders as well as text message reminders.
Log on here to change your settings drdoctor.thirdparty.nhs.uk/nhc
If you cannot get online, please let us know at reception or the next time you speak to us, and we can update it for you.