NHSmail

NHSmail is the national, secure email service for health and social care in England and Scotland. It is freely available to social care providers as it is centrally funded by the NHS.

NHSmail is approved to be used to share confidential health and care information.

What does NHSmail offer?

1. Secure and modern email exchange using Microsoft Exchange 2013
2. 1 shared account and 10 individual staff accounts. You can ask for more or less depending on what your organisation needs.
3. Access to the NHS Directory. This is the address book of all other users who have an NHS.net account. This means you can easily find the contact details of other health and care professionals.
4. 24/7 support through a national helpdesk
5. Instant messaging via Skype for Business
6. You can also buy more services via a top-up catalogue. This is funded locally.

There are case studies of providers who are already using NHSmail here: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhsmail/nhsmail-case-studies

How to join NHSmail

If you are based in Scotland contact: [email protected]

For care providers in England you must:

1. Have completed the Data Security and Protection Toolkit to at least Entry Level.
2. Choose which registration route is best for you. There are 3 different ways of registering for NHSmail.

Route 1 – The National Administration Service (NAS)

We recommend this route for most providers.

Register online to join NHSmail. All accounts are set up, managed and hosted by the national helpdesk. This service is free for all CQC regulated social care providers.

Registration should be completed by one person on behalf of each care home site.

To complete this route you need:

• A Data Security and Protection Toolkit submission.
• Care Quality Commission (CQC) location ID – this is your CQC registration number.
• CQC Registered Manager’s ID – this is called the Contact ID in the NHSmail registration portal.

If you do not currently have a Registered Manager, you can request a One Time Password by contacting [email protected]

Groups with over 30 sites should contact the NHSmail team at [email protected] and write “Social care bulk upload request” in the subject line. The NHSmail team will tell you how to complete the bulk upload process.

To join using the NAS please use the online registration portal tool: https://portal.nhs.net/Registration#/careprovider

Route 2 – Self-Management

If you want to set up and administrate your own NHSmail accounts you can choose this route. This is only recommended for larger groups with strong internal IT support.

Details on this route are available via the self-management application process and form.

Route 3 – Local Registration/Local Administration.

This is for providers who have links to their local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) or Commissioning Support Unit (CSU). These NHS partners can act as a Local Administrator and set up and manage accounts on your behalf.

More Information

For more detail on these routes visit: https://portal.nhs.net/Help/joiningnhsmail

You can download guidance on accessing NHSmail here: NHSmail PPT Template

You will need to visit the ‘Registering a Social Care Organisation’ section on the page.