Lice to see you, to see you lice: STD patients get SMS reminders

Homerton University Hospital in Hackney is set to launch a text messaging service to remind its Sexual Health Department patients to turn up for appointments.

The three-month trial will launch before the end of this month with high hopes it will turn around the Sexual Health Department's shoddy patient attendance record.

Of 50 daily appointments, only about 30 patients arrive, a spokeswoman stated.

She added: "Depending on the results of this trial, the service could be rolled out to outpatients and other departments that have a similar attendance problem."

The service will send a text message to patients two days before their appointment.

Future services could extend from the trial service - which prompts patients to ring a phone number if they are not able to attend - to include a text back service.

Dipak Duggal, head of the hospital's diagnostic and emergency services department, came up with the idea while flicking through his text messages one day.