NHSMailer: how to use NHSMail for free bulk and automated SMS, with source code
Organizations within the National Health Service are able to take advantage of NHSMail, a hosted messaging service provided under the National Programme for IT. For many NHS operating units, NHSMail is a much more cost-effective solution than an in-house mail server.
NHSMail also provides a gateway to SMS text messaging. The use of text messages is proven to significantly reduce the number of patients who fail to attend appointments, and it is a very effective means of communicating with certain client groups - for example when sending the results of chlamydia screening tests.
The NHSMailer project illustrates how, using some freeware utilities and simple software, SMS messages can be automated and sent in bulk over NHSMail.
Please note that the NHSMail gateway is only available to authorised users and through a connection to the NHS private data network N3. The NHSMailer application requires Microsoft Dot Net framework 3.5 or above and will download this during the installation if necessary, leading to potentially lengthy installation times. NHSMailer uses third party utilities BLAT and STUNNEL which must be separately downloaded and installed. The NHSMailer software was developed in Visual Basic using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition. The compiler can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/express/vb/Default.aspx.
