Patients Know Best FAQs

No, this will not affect the care you already receive from us. Instead, it’s designed to improve your care and experience, help you to be more involved in decisions, get better explanations from us, and give you the tools to manage your care safely at home.

Not yet, but we are working on adding this feature. To make changes to your appointment, you can find our contact details here. 

You can find your blood test results in the Patients Know Best portal. Only results that were requested by your doctor at a Barts Health NHS Trust hospital will appear here. If your blood test was requested by another hospital or your GP, they might not be there because of the way our IT systems work.  

Most results will be on PKB within 5 working days after your blood test. Some results could take up to 8 weeks depending on laboratory processing times.

• Depending on laboratory processing times, some blood test results could take up to 8 weeks.
• Some sensitive results, such as markers that could be a sign of cancer, will be delayed by 28 days to give your doctor time to review and discuss the results with you. You will always be contacted about any concerning results and your doctor will discuss any treatment plans.  
• If you had your blood test before 22^nd February 2024, your results will not be in the portal. If you need to review past results or discuss your medical history, you can always do so with your care team during your appointments.

Please contact your care team whose contact details can be found at the top of any correspondence from us. Your care team can provide you with further information and guidance based on your results and medical history.

Yes, you can check your radiology appointments on PKB. You can also find your results 28 days after they have been authorised by your clinical team. 

No, you will still get communications from us in the normal way. This is just another way to check your hospital appointments and view to your health record. 

On the homepage of PKB you will see a notification when your record has been updated with new results.

Did you receive a text message or email inviting you to join Patients Know Best? 

If you have had contact with Barts Health NHS Trust in the past 2 years and are over 16 years of age, you may have received a text message or email from ‘Barts NHS’ inviting you to register for Patients Know Best. 

What if I do not want to register for Patients Know Best? 

You do not need to take any action, simply delete the text message or email.

What do I do if I do not want Patients Know Best to hold any of my records? 

Please send us an email bartshealth.pkb@nhs.net and we can de-register you. 

Are other organisations across North East London using Patients Know Best? 

Yes, Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) are amongst other NHS acute trusts using the service. 

More information can be found on https://northeastlondon.icb.nhs.uk/patients-know-best/pkb/ 

Want to find out more about how your data is used? 

To read about how your data is used by the Trust, what your rights and who to contact if you have any concerns, please see www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/privacy. 

Patients Know Best is compliant with the NHS network, so it’s just as secure as the information your healthcare providers already hold on you. However, it's unique because it also gives you, the patient, access to your information via any web-enabled device. Patient information is encrypted (or coded) and only people who have permission to view your information can do so.

We encrypt data in both transit (i.e. when the information comes in and out) and storage.

Parents or carers must have their own Patients Know Best account before they can be given permission to access their child's (under 16 years of age) record.  Once registered, please contact us so that you can be verified and added to the child's record.

If you have not yet registered, follow the links above to do so using your NHS login.

Yes you can ask someone else to register on your behalf, with your consent. However, they should not use their own email account to do this. If you want the family member or carer to have access to your record they can be added in the “sharing” section. This will allow them to set up their own account and allow you to control the level of access they have to your record.

Not yet, but we are working on adding this feature. Keep an eye out for updates.

Yes, Patients Know Best supports 22 different langauges. To change the language and for more information, go to:  https://manual.patientsknowbest.com/patient/languages

For any technical web issues, please contact the Patients Know Best team at help@patientsknowbest.com. This is not linked to Barts Health NHS Trust, so please do not share any personal or clinical information in this email. 

For any other issues or questions about your data, you can contact our own team at bartshealth.pkb@nhs.net.