How the Messages inbox works

Overview

The Messaging section of the Practice Portal shows all messages sent via our messaging partner, including an Inbox view and a Failed view. This article explains what the failed messages list shows, what the statuses mean, and what action (if any) a practice can take.

Note

All steps in this article are optional. GP Automate does not require practices to action failed messages. The failed list is provided for visibility and as a convenience if a practice wants to follow up with affected patients through another channel.

Inbox vs Failed: what is the difference?

Both tabs relate to failed messages, but they are separate lists and do not necessarily contain the same messages or patients. A message appearing in one tab is not guaranteed to appear in the other, so practices wanting full visibility of failures should check both:

• Inbox: one ticket per failed message, with full detail: the failure reason (for example, "Message blocked by the recipient's mobile network"), suggested next steps, assignee, and a "Save to record" button where the message was not automatically saved to the patient's record. Tickets can be assigned, filtered by My inbox, All tickets, or Unassigned, and closed once actioned.

• Failed: a flat, filterable list of failed messages across message types and statuses (Declined, Fatal, and so on), with a "Mark as done" action per row. It is a quicker way to scan and filter failures in bulk rather than working through them as individual tickets.

What the failed messages list is

The Failed tab (Messaging > Failed) lists messages from our messaging partner that did not reach the patient. It is a visibility tool, not a task queue. Nothing in this list represents outstanding GP practice work, and no message here has been missed on our side. It reflects delivery outcomes reported back by the SMS/email provider.

Message statuses

Declined accounts for the large majority of failures. It does not indicate a fault with our messaging partner or the Practice Portal. It simply means the phone number or email address held for that patient is not valid.

What action a practice can take (optional)

If a practice wants to follow up, it should check both tabs, since they can list different messages. Using the Failed tab:

1. Open Messaging > Failed.

2. Filter by status (for example, Declined or Fatal) to see the messages that will not resolve on their own.

3. For each affected patient, check and update their contact details in EMIS if they are found to be incorrect.

4. Contact the patient via an alternative channel (phone, letter, or in person) if the message was time-sensitive.

5. Use "Mark as done" to clear the item from the failed list once the patient has been contacted another way, or once the practice is satisfied no further action is needed. This only updates the item's status in the portal; it has no effect on EMIS or on the patient record.

Using the Inbox tab, the same kind of follow-up can be done ticket by ticket: open a ticket to see the failure reason and suggested next steps, use "Save to record" if the message was not automatically saved to the patient's record, then close the ticket once resolved.

Retry-status messages do not need manual action. These are still being attempted automatically by the provider. A small number of non-Declined failures (provider-side issues rather than bad contact details) may resolve with a manual retry, but this is not required.

Patient responses

Patients cannot reply to standard messages sent via our messaging partner through the current GP Automate setup.

Key points for practices

• The failed list is informational, not a backlog. Nothing has been missed by GP Automate.

• Most failures are due to incorrect or outdated patient contact details, not a system fault.

• Reviewing and actioning failed messages is entirely optional.

• "Mark as done" only clears the portal item; it does not update EMIS or notify the patient.