Royal Berkshire Connect

What information can I see on Royal Berkshire Connect?

You can see an extract of information we hold about your care on our electronic patient record system. Once registered you will be able to:

• see details of hospital appointments such as date, time, and location.
• confirm or request to cancel or reschedule your outpatient appointments.
• add reminders to your personal calendar, and view directions to the hospital
• see any allergies you have told us about.
• see any blood pressure, pulse or temperature that we recorded during you hospital visit.
• find quick directions to our hospitals and community sites, you can download these directions to your mobile phone.
• choose your communication preferences either to stay with receiving a paper letter or go paperless and receive your communications by text message and through the Royal Berkshire Connect Portal.

You'll have access to:

• Blood results: some blood results will be available in your portal. There will be a slight delay between you having your blood taken and them appearing in your Portal, this is to allow your clinician time to review the results.
• Questionnaires: Some specialities will send you questionnaires or assessments for you to complete prior to your appointment. You will be able to fill these in your Royal Berkshire Connect Portal.
• Messages: your clinical team will be able to send you messages via the Royal Berkshire Connect portal.

Will I be able to view documents and letters in Royal Berkshire Connect?

Letters and documents that are routinely posted to you, as well as some documents that are printed and given to you during your hospital visit or appointment, will also be available to view in Royal Berkshire Connect. This includes outpatient clinic outcome letters, inpatient discharge summaries, and other patient correspondence.

Why do I sometimes see ‘pending’ against a document?

Documents and letters go through a checking process before being sent to you, this is why sometimes you may see a pending message whilst a document is being reviewed.

How do I access patient information leaflets and other support?

Information about your appointment may be included within your appointment letter or included as an additional document.

Yes, you do.

The NHS app is something everyone should have,and we encourage all our patients to use it.We even provide access to it on the Royal Berkshire Connect login page.But there are some important and useful features in Royal Berkshire Connect - features like Appointment requests and Questionnaires – that the NHS app doesn’t have.So you need both.

It’s really easy.

Type https://patients.royalberkshire.nhs.uk/ into your phone or computer and click on Register with username.

Yes. Royal Berkshire Connect is a web-based service and there are no special requirements or apps to install on your phone, laptop or tablet.

You do need a mobile phone number in order to receive SMS messages, including security check when logging in, but these will be successfully delivered even to the most basic mobile phones.

As long as your laptop or tablet has an internet connection and a browser - Google Chrome,Safari, Microsoft Edge and Firefox web browsers will all work – you should be fine.

Yes – you can add as many children as you like, as long as they are registered patients at Royal Berkshire and have a scheduled appointment or have recently attended one.

To start, follow the same instructions for registration at the start of this FAQ document:

Type https://patients.royalberkshire.nhs.uk/ into your phone or computer and click on Register with username.

You’ll need to enter your child’s NHS number,date of birth and the mobile phone number registered on their hospital record.At the prompt tick the box to register your child using a different username. This can be anything you like, and it’s how you will be able to tell whether an SMS update is for you or for your child.

Add a password, confirm when you get the SMS prompt, and that’s it. Your child now has their own Royal Berkshire Connect portal with their own Username, connected to your email and phone number – as long as that is the same mobile number the hospital has registered on your child’s patient record.

You can, although it’s not recommended unless absolutely necessary, as it can be very confusing and lead to mistakes when trying to log in and respond to updates and requests from the Royal Berkshire.

To register, you’ll both need to have the same,shared number on your hospital patient records,to receive notifications. You can have separate email addresses, and it’s a good idea to do so if you’re sharing a phone number.Then make sure that you register with different and easily recognizable Usernames, as well as
your own unique passwords.

Yes. Unlike the phone number – which must be the number registered on the patient record – the email address in Royal Berkshire Connect can be updated in the app.To change the email address in a Royal Berkshire Connect account, go to the Account section from the Home Page.

In Notification Details, click on the Change button next to Email. Enter the password for the Royal Berkshire Connect account to which you’re adding your own email. 

Enter your email address and press Save.

You’ll get notification of the change to both the old and new email addresses.

Note that this will not change the email registered on the patient record at the hospital.

No, unfortunately not - delegated access is not possible at this time.

I registered a while ago, but I’ve forgotten my username and password – do I have to register again?

No, your account will still be there, as long as you are still a patient at Royal Berkshire.If you have the same mobile phone number that is on your patient record at the Royal Berks, you can reset your user name and password on the login page using Forgot Username/Forgot Password options and the the system will give you further prompts.

If you still have problems, go to the Help Centre link at the bottom of the Royal Berkshire Connect Login Page.

Can I change the email I use to log in to Royal Berkshire Connect?

Yes, login to Royal Berkshire Connect, go to My Details, in the Your Login Details section select Change next to the current email address. Confirm your password and then enter your new email address.

Does changing my email address on Royal Berkshire Connect change the email stored on my Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust patient record?

Yes. If we plan to contact you by email we will do this using the email registered in Royal Berkshire Connect.

Can I change my mobile phone number via Royal Berkshire Connect?

No, unfortunately you cannot do this currently. If you need to update the mobile phone number, please refer to the contact information within your appointment letter. If this is not available, please contact the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust department or service you are under.

Can I view all my appointments in Royal Berkshire Connect?

Yes, they are all there in the Appointments section, including Future appointments

• Past appointments (since Royal Berkshire Connect was launched)
• Waiting lists for first appointment (where available)
• Any appointment requests you’ve made,including PIFU

Can I reschedule my appointment on Royal Berkshire Connect?

It will depend on which speciality is treating you and the type of appointment that has been scheduled.

Where available, the Reschedule button is prominently displayed on the Appointment card,and the process for rescheduling is straightforward.

If you do have the Reschedule option available,remember that you can only reschedule up to a certain time before the appointment – if you have a very short-term reason, you’ll have to call the hospital to reschedule in the usual way.

Can I Cancel my appointment on Royal Berkshire Connect?

Again, this depends on your medical team and the type of appointment.The same rule applies about time limits – you can only use the Cancel Appointment feature up to a certain period before the scheduled appointment. confirmation if I reschedule or cancel my appointment?

Yes. We will send a text message confirming that the appointment has been rescheduled for a different date or cancelled.

What happens if I reschedule or cancel my appointment and I have transport or/and interpreter booked?

If you are rescheduling or cancelling your appointment and it has been agreed that you are eligible for transport which has already been arranged or you have an interpreter booked, please please contact the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust department or service you are under to notify them of the changes.

Will I get notifications and reminders for my appointments?

Yes, a message is sent when the appointment is booked.The first reminder is sent 10 days before the appointment. And you’ll get a second reminder 3 days before the appointment.

Do I need to confirm my attendance for my appointment?

When you view your appointment, you will see an option to Confirm Attendance. If you select this option this will feed through to your hospital patient record and will help our teams to know to expect you.

Even if you do not use this option, we will still be expecting you to attend. When you attend your appointment, you should follow the instructions within your letter to confirm your arrival.

If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please refer to your appointment letter for details on how to contact us to do this. See previous question for more information.

You can’t track the progress of a referral that hasn’t been accepted by the hospital.But once it has been accepted, the Waiting List feature notifies you that your referral has been accepted.Some specialities will allow you to update your medical team on your condition, and provide useful information about what to expect at your first appointment

PIFU – Patient Initiated Follow Up – appointments are appointments that you can request, rather than waiting for the hospital to schedule them. And your doctor’s right – Royal Berkshire Connect is definitely the easiest way to make the request. PIFU details are found in the Appointments section of Royal Berkshire Connect under the Appointment requests.

Yes. Royal Berkshire Connect shows laboratory results.These can be found by clicking on the Health Record tile on the home screen.

To change your preferences, go to the Account section from the Home Page Scroll down to Letter Delivery and click on the Change button in the Method panel. Then select Letters delivered by post.

Yes, they are, and you’ll get an SMS notification that you have received a clinical letter with a link that takes you straight to it

To find clinical correspondence from the Home Page of your Royal Berkshire Connect, click on Letters.In the Letters section you’ll find a Clinical letters tile.Click on that to see your available Clinical letters and then finally click on the tile for any particular letter to show the letter itself.

What should I do if I spot information in Royal Berkshire Connect that is not correct, or not related to my care and treatment?

If you believe the error relates to something clinically important, please contact the contact the department or service delivering your care. Contact information can also be found on letters we have sent to you.
In the unlikely event that information has been uploaded to your record in error, please inform us of this error immediately, using the contact details on the letter.

Royal Berkshire Connect does not hold your address details; however your address will appear on any letters that you receive, these will show the address that we had for you at the date the letter was generated. If you need to amend your address, or notice a discrepancy with an address, please refer to the contact details on the letter.

If the error is not urgent, please raise this next time you are visiting the hospital so that it can be corrected.

Is my information secure?

Yes, Royal Berkshire Connect uses the same technology that other websites use to gather sensitive information. The website security padlock symbol in the address bar tells you that information between your web browser and the server is encrypted so that other people (like hackers sitting in between your browser and the web server) cannot access or intercept what information is being sent back and forth.
Will the hospital use my email address for anything else?

We take the security of your personal information very seriously and there are strict rules about how we use your data. We will register your email address on our main hospital system, if it is not already registered, and will use it to contact you regarding your Royal Berkshire Connect account.

This contact information will be used to communicate with you regarding your health. By providing your email address, you are giving us permission to interact with you for other health related reasons, such as sending email notifications when you have messages from your clinical teams, or for receiving health assessment questionnaires.

We cannot take responsibility for how your email account is accessed and who else may be able to access or intercept it.