Chlamydia texts 'speed up help'

Chlamydia diagnosis was used to measure the success of the text service

Texting the results of chlamydia tests could lead to infected patients getting faster treatment, a study suggests.

Patients would normally get results by post or during scheduled appointments.

Those receiving mobile phone messages during a six-month pilot at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital received results at least three days faster than usual.

Texting is more acceptable to patients and cheaper and less time-consuming for the NHS, said doctors in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Anything which gets people with chlamydia earlier results and treatment has got to be a good thing Lisa Power, Terrence Higgins Trust

The team decided to use texts because so many patients owned a mobile phone, and text messaging was a familiar activity for them.

Around 500 billion text messages are sent in the UK every year.

No personal information was sent out in the text messages.

'A more acceptable option'

Over the six-month period, 952 messages were sent to patients who had been given full sexual health checks, who agreed to be notified in this way.

Most read "all of your test results are negative".

But, if the patient had tested positive, they were asked to either phone or attend the clinic.

Although this was done for positive checks for all STIs, the researchers focussed on chlamydia in order to get a picture of how successful the practice was.

In 122 cases, the recipient was asked to ring the clinic, and in 49 they were asked to return to the clinic.

Of these, 28 had an untreated chlamydia infection.

On average, those patients who received their diagnoses by text heard within eight days, compared to more than 11 days for the standard methods of communicating them - in person or over the phone.

It also took less time for patients to receive treatment, with those who received texts in 8.5 days compared with 15 days for the standard practice group.

By the final month of the study, over a third of all test results were provided by text.

The clinic had previously found that providing the results of sexual health screens to patients took up 120 hours a month.

The text messaging service saved 46 hours of staff time and £609 in costs.

The authors said the text messaging service minimises the risks of people missing results, and is often a more acceptable option for patients, not all of whom have access to a landline.

Writing in the journal, the researchers led by Dr Ann Sullivan, said: "Sending the majority of patients a text message result would help us reach our target of 100% result provision.

"Patients tell us they love the service.

"In view of the potential benefits, if the majority of patients use the text message services, there is a case for making it the default results service."

Lisa Power, head of policy for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "This is a really innovative idea - it's immediate, convenient and non-intrusive."

She added: "Anything which gets people with chlamydia earlier results and treatment has got to be a good thing."

But Ms Power added: "This method of informing people should be a choice, not obligatory.

"There should also be a reminder call for people who need follow up but haven't been in touch with the clinic."

In a second paper in the journal, researchers from Bavaria and Edinburgh found a switch to a more sophisticated chlamydia testing method from the late 1990s may have had an impact on the huge increase in positive results.