NHSmail 2 migration triggers spike in help desk calls

Calls to the new NHSmail helpdesk have more than trebled in the past six months, as NHS Digital has migrated more than million accounts to the new system.

Figures provided to Digital Health News show that in April the helpdesk set-up to deal with migration to NHSmail2 received 10,826 calls. By September, this had risen to 37,005 calls.

In a statement, an NHS Digital spokesman pointed out that this still equated to less than 4% of the 1.15 million accounts now migrated to NHSmail 2.

“More than 96% of user accounts have been transferred without the need for helpdesk support,” he said.

Moreover, the most common request, accounting for about one in five of all calls in the past three months, has been assistance to reset a password – not a technical fault.

Other common requests included assistance with logging-in to the new portal, registering, and the location of folders.

“As with any large-scale migration or launch, we anticipated an increase in helpdesk calls and planned accordingly to support users as they continue to familiarise themselves with the new system.”

However, Digital Health News has received persistent complaints from NHS staff about performance and compatibility issues with the new mail service since the migration began in late May.

One source said the system was still suffering from intermittent outages. NHS Digital information suggests there have been 14 “minor disruptions to NHSmail services” in the past three months, ranging from 15 minutes to four hours.

“There have been no national wholesale outages, with new secure service working as expected, and we are receiving positive feedback from users.”

As of Wednesday afternoon- there was one open “high severity” issue with the service showing on the NHS Digital website, relating to the blacklisting of outgoing emails from NHSmail 2 accounts.

In addition, there were nine “generally known issues” showing, including spoofing attacks, where people falsely send emails pretending to be from an NHS address, and compatibility problems with old browsers and operating systems.

However, NHSmail 2 users appear to be getting more familiar with the new service with NHS Digital projecting calls to drop to about 26,000 this month.

NHSmail 2 had been rolled out to replace its ageing predecessor, NHSmail. This was described as an increasingly unstable “burning platform” that did not have the capacity to take on new accounts.

Accenture won the £60 million contract to run the new service in June last year, taking over from Cable and Wireless (now part of Vodafone), which has been the supplier for NHSmail since its launch in 2002. Migration began in late May and was completed in August.

The new service also has several handy new features, including doubling the mailbox storage capacity to 4GB, better mobile integration and a wider range of tools.

Many of the features planned beyond email, such as presence management, SharePoint, Skype for business, and instant messaging are not yet available, although several trusts are trialling these functions.

Calls to the NHSmail helpdesk (figures from NHS Digital):

April – 10,826

May – 17,738

June – 26,259

July – 28,987

August – 26,068

September – 37,005