Healthcare should be a partnership, and that means making sure you’re always in the know. Introducing Patients Know Best (PKB), our free digital patient portal which provides you with access to parts of your personal health information from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) and Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT).
About the launch
To begin with, only basic information about patients aged 16 years or older will be added to the PKB system. This includes name, date of birth, gender, and NHS number. This will be followed by upcoming appointment details and inpatient discharge summaries. This process will take some time to deliver, meaning that you will not have access to all this information in PKB just yet. We will let you know once more information has been added.
Rest assured, all your information within PKB is securely stored within the NHS network, with instant notifications alerting you whenever there’s new data available for you. We chose PKB because it meets the strict NHS requirements for health record systems and is fully compliant with the Data Protection Legislation 2018. All personal and health information is encrypted (or coded) so that PKB only has access to your NHS number, which is non-identifiable. Only you and the people you choose can access your information. This means PKB cannot see or access your personal or health information. They simply host it.
You can find more information about the patient portal on the Trust websites:
Access to PKB
log in via the NHS App using your NHS login, or through the online portal using any web browser on any device.
You might receive an invitation from us to register for PKB, either by email, SMS text message, or a posted letter. If you’ve been a patient with us in the last five years and haven’t received your invitation yet, you can register using this link.
While we’re working on adding information to the portal, you can get started setting up your PKB account and navigating its features. These include manually inputting your own data, tracking your medications and allergies, and logging your health measurements, and much more. Learn more about these featured in the video below.
We are working with our teams to understand how the additional functionality that PKB offers can be used within outpatient specialist services. We will be gradually rolling these out to improve the care you receive.
Patient support
For support or answers to common queries regarding the PKB portal, please refer to the comprehensive PKB manual located within the portal.
The manual offers detailed guidance on a wide variety of topics and functionality. Shortcuts to the guidance that we think you will find most useful is below:
- Using NHS Login to access PKB and viewing PKB via the NHS App
- Setting and resetting passwords
- Changing your email address associated with your PKB account
- Sharing your record with a family member, friend, carer or professional
- Email notifications
If you cannot find an answer to your question in the manual, please contact our PKB support team at [email protected].
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