Urgent Change of SMS Provider

We will shortly be moving the SMS provider for GP practices from Cisco to EE for our SMS service. This is due to an unavoidable withdrawal of the Cisco SMS service which Vision currently uses. Instead, we will be fully implementing the EE SMS service across all customers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This EE SMS Service is already established and used widely in Scotland.

The change will start from 30th July 2025 and complete on 6th August.

Practices will still be sending SMS messages using pre-paid bundles, purchased in quantities of 2,500. Your existing balance at the point of transition will be maintained. As part of this switch to EE, we will be utilising a different approach to monitoring the usage of SMS Messages. The SMS message counter in Vision+, as shown below in the screenshots, will no longer be available.

You will also no longer be able to use the SMS From field in Vision+ Settings. This is because with EE’s SMS service, they send messages via a specific SMS number to process any incoming delivery receipts and replies.

The new approach to tracking SMS usage is via Outcomes Manager, where you can run a report showing your SMS usage for the practice. Please contact our Service Desk team to obtain an Outcomes Manager account if you wish to make use of this facility (servicedesk.om@visionhealth.co.uk).

SMS usage will still be monitored by INPS, and when your allocation is low or used up, we will contact you to arrange a top-up. If you do not top-up, SMS sending will be disabled, in a similar way to the current service.

You will receive an e-mail after your practice has migrated to the new service, confirming your balance at the point of migration.

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please contact the Service Desk team in the first instance.