Patients Know Best (PKB) is Medway NHS Foundation Trust’s free online patient portal which provides you with access to your personal health information and is designed to improve your patient experience and access to NHS services and information.
Patients Know Best will enable you to access information through the NHS App using your NHS login and is accessible from any internet enabled device. All your information is securely stored in one place with instant notifications when new information is made available.
This service is available in Medway to any patient aged 18 years and over.
If you have been a patient here at the Trust, you may have received a notification from our partner, Patients Know Best, about your Patients Know Best record being updated. This is a genuine notification from the Trust.
Find out more in the Patients Know Best manual.
Patients Know Best and the NHS App
The NHS App already allows you to see your vaccinations status, order repeat prescriptions, book and manage GP appointments, get health information and advice, view your NHS number and view your GP health record securely.
The service, which is completely free, will link your hospital information from Patients Know Best in the NHS App, allowing you to view your hospital outpatient appointment letters and appointment details.
In the future it will also give you secure online access to hospital scans and test results and also to allow you to add information to your record, such as measurements, data from devices such as fitness watches and symptoms. It’s all thanks to some extra technology that has been added to the NHS App for patients.
How to register
Download the NHS App
First you need to register for the national NHS App, which you can do by searching for ‘NHS App’ in the App Store or Google Play and following the instructions. If you don’t have a smart device you can also sign up and access the service on your computer.
You will be asked to follow a number of steps to verify your identity so that you can securely log in and access all of the services in the national NHS App.
Sign up to our additional service in the NHS App, run by Patients Know Best (PKB)
To get access to your hospital appointment letters you need to follow some further steps:
- Open ‘Messages’ in the NHS App and select ‘consultations, events and messages.’
- A message will open asking if you agree to share your NHS login information with Patients Know Best. Click ‘I agree.’
- Register with your email address, a strong password and a security question.
- Accept the privacy agreement and click the ‘Register’ button.
You’re all set! Next time you log into the NHS App you will be able to see both your GP and hospital appointment information.
Please be reassured whilst Patients Know Best is our partner in providing this service, they do not have any access to your health information, which remains secure. Your information doesn’t move from the NHS and you will be the only person who can view the information available through the NHS App.
- You can register through our dedicated Patients Know Best website
- If you receive a letter inviting you to register, just follow the steps which are explained in the Patients Know Best manual
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
As you have been a patient at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, your record has been added to this organisation. Unfortunately, if the demographics we had on file for you locally did not match your Patients Know Best record, they will have been overwritten. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
You can update the demographics manually, but the details will continue to be overwritten unless they match what is held by all organisations that are sharing data with you. Please can you confirm your NHS number, date of birth and current address and we will ensure the details held at at the Trust are updated to reflect this .
Medway NHS Foundation Trust can now share the data it holds for you into Patients Know Best, however you have full control over your record. If you do not wish for your record to be shared, you can simply revoke the access we hold for you.
You will see the last two years of appointments and letters. Currently this does not include radiology appointments and letters.
The Trust is working hard on adding more letters into the portal such as radiology appointment letters, and other clinical letters.
Letters which are not read in the portal will be sent out by post. If the appointment is within seven days you will always receive the letter in the post.
You can add your own information if you wish, such as tracking your symptoms or recording medications you are taking. You can also keep your own notes to monitor your condition.
You will be sent an email to the email address you provided when you registered.
You will see the welcome message for the Trust that created your record. If you go to the sharing option, this will show you all the Trusts and teams you are sharing your data with. PKB is available at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, and shortly Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust too.
Yes as this is an online service and will require you or a carer to have regular internet access to receive your letters and use any additional features.
Some patients may not have any information in their records when they first register however this will change over time as you visit the hospital for treatment. You can still add your own information, such as tracking your symptoms or recording any medication you take.
No, there is no cost to you. Using the portal will help us to reduce costs on paper and postage which can be reinvested to provide better care.
Yes. You can only use one unique email address per registration e.g. you can’t use a family shared email if your family/friend already uses that email for their PKB account. If you are registering through the NHS App, it will automatically use the email address associated with that account.
Emails need to be unique per patient – they cannot be shared across patients (i.e. the same email cannot be used for a parent and a child). Each patient requires an individual email.
This may happen when the discharge documentation is updated by your clinical team, during your stay as an inpatient or after you have been discharged from the hospital.
Please let us know by emailing medwayft.PKB@nhs.net
This will then be updated in the portal when you are next booked an appointment and contact your GP practice to update your details.
For patients who visited Medway NHS Foundation Trust within the last two years (before October 2023), your historical appointments will be available in PKB. Any future appointment information will show immediately in PKB when an appointment has been booked. Unfortunately, radiology appointments are not yet included.
Data is only available for patients over the age of 18. When you reach the age of 18 you will start to see data that the Trust sends, appointment information and discharge letters.
No. The data you add to PKB will not be monitored routinely by clinical teams, the record is for you to track your data.
If you have any concerns regarding your health, please contact your GP. If your surgery is closed, please call 111. In the event of a life-threatening emergency please call 999.
For any queries or if you require more support and information (e.g. resetting a password), please email the team at medwayft.pkb@nhs.net or call 01634 833831.
For technical issues, please contact the PKB team by emailing help@patientsknowbest.com, or complete an online form.
Please do not share any personal or clinical information with the team at PKB.
This is your choice. Ignore the emails inviting you to register if you do not want to interact with the hospital in a digital way.