New NHSmail FAQs
Since the recent launch of the NHS Profile Manager tool, which uses NHSmail accounts to allow pharmacy team members to login to it, both PSNC and the NHSmail team have received an increasing number of questions from pharmacy contractors regarding NHSmail.
NHSmail is an NHS funded and managed secure email service which has been approved for use for exchanging patient data between health professionals. To meet their NHS Terms of Service, contractors must ensure they have a premises specific NHSmail account (with an email address using the following naming convention: ‘pharmacy.ODScode@nhs.net’), which their staff can access and can send and receive NHSmail from.
There must be at least two members of staff that have live personal NHSmail accounts that are linked to the premises specific NHSmail account.
The service can be accessed over the Health and Social Care Network or the open internet. It can also be viewed through a free web-based client or pharmacies can alternatively choose to connect the service to a local email client, for example Microsoft Outlook.
A selection of NHSmail queries that have been submitted by contractors are available below along with some NHSmail top tips.
FAQs
Q. Why is a mobile phone number needed to set up my account? How will the phone number be used?
A mobile phone number must be provided when applying for an NHSmail account as temporary passwords are sent via text message to the mobile number provided. The phone number is also used to help users reset their password.
You can choose to hide your mobile number so that it doesn’t appear in the People Finder directory which is accessbile to other NHSmail users.
Q. What if I forget my password, cannot answer my security questions and do not have a mobile phone number which can be used as authentication to retrieve the password?
You will need to speak to the shared mailbox owner of your pharmacy who will need to contact the helpdesk to confirm your authentication and ask for your password to be reset. The national helpdesk will ask the shared account owner to confirm the phone number for the temporary password to be sent to.
Q. How can I check which staff members have an NHSmail personal account?
NHSmail users can use the People Finder tool. This is an online directory of NHSmail mailboxes – personal and shared accounts. People Finder should be used by NHSmail users to identify relevant contact information.
Q. How do we raise or escalate NHSmail technical queries?
PSNC’s escalation factsheet outlines the process required to raise and escalate NHSmail technical queries. The pharmacy NHSmail owner should email pharmacyadmin@nhs.net with the question and any relevant information.
NHSmail top tips:
- Use your NHSmail accounts regularly as this helps reduce the risk that personal accounts are ‘deactivated’ because of inactivity.
- Members of staff setting up new personal NHSmail account need to activate their accounts using the process described in the ‘Using NHSmail’ section of PSNC’s NHSmail webpage.
Further information
Read more at:
- PSNC’s new NHSmail FAQ factsheet; and
- support.nhs.net FAQs
