How to sign into PKB directly using your NHS login

This step by step guide is for patients with a registered Patients Know Best record. 

1. Click ‘Continue NHS login' from the PKB log in page

2. You will be directed to the NHS login sign-in page 

3. Enter your email and click continue 

4. Enter your NHS login password & you will be sent a One Time Password (OTP) to your mobile phone. 

5. Enter the OTP and click continue 

6. You will now need to agree to share your NHS login information with PKB 

7. You will now be signed into PKB. 

How to register to PKB directly using your NHS login

This step-by-step guide is for patients who wish to register for a new or existing Patients Know Best record. Patients must be over 16 years old to register via NHS Login.

1. Click 'Continue to NHS login' from the PKB log in page

2. You will be directed to the NHS login sign-in page 

3. Enter your email and click continue 

4. Enter your NHS login password & you will be sent a One Time Password (OTP) to your mobile phone. 

5. Enter the OTP and click continue 

6. You will now need to agree to share your NHS login information with PKB 

7. You will be shown a registration form to complete. The form requires you to set up a password and security question for your PKB account, enter your address, and accept both the User Agreement & Privacy Policy for PKB.

8. Complete the form and click next and you will be signed into PKB with your NHS login.

How to self-register from a team registration page 

This guide is for patients who wish to register for a new or existing Patients Know Best record from a specific team's registration page 

1. Click 'Continue NHS login' from the team registration page

2. You will be directed to the NHS login sign-in page

3. Enter your email and click continue  (if your email does not match an existing NHS login - you will be automatically directed through the process of creating one)

4. Enter your NHS login password & you will be sent a One Time Password (OTP) to your mobile phone.

5. Enter the OTP and click continue

6. You will now need to agree to share your NHS login information with PKB

7. You will be shown a registration form to complete. The form requires you to set up a password and security question for your PKB account, enter your address, and accept both the User Agreement & Privacy Policy for PKB.

8. Complete the form and click next and you will be signed into PKB with your NHS login & linked to the specified team so you can access their resources.

Accessing PKB from the NHS App

Patients can access parts of their PKB record from within the NHS App and can use NHS login’s encrypted single sign-on to do so. This option is currently only available to users on a regional basis where the region has specified that PKB is their Patient Held Record (PHR) provider. 

This allows patients to access the same PHR data inside the NHS App interface, for a more seamless and joined-up NHS experience. 

Currently, the Events & Messages, Appointments, Medicines, Plans, Tests, Imaging, Symptoms, Measurements, Journal, Library & Sharing pages can all be accessed from within the NHS App.  

• To access PKB 'Events & messages' from the NHS App homepage,  click on 'View your messages' from the homepage or 'Messages' from the navigation bar and then click on the  'Consultations, events and messages' button. 

• To access PKB 'Library' from the NHS App, click on the 'View links from your health team' button found in the NHS App 'Your Health choices' section under the ' Your health' menu that is found in the main navigation. 

• To access PKB 'Appointments' from the NHS App, click on  'Appointments' from the main navigation,  then 'Hospital referrals and appointments' & select 'Additional appointment information'. 

• To access PKB 'Plans' from the NHS App, click on 'Your health' from the main navigation then 'Care plans' 

• To access PKB 'Medicines' pages from the NHS app, click 'Prescriptions' & then 'Hospital & other medicines' 

• To access PKB 'Symptoms', 'Measurements' or 'Journal'  pages from the NHS app, click on 'Your health' then 'Your health choices' and select 'Track your symptoms'

• To access PKB ‘Tests' or 'Imaging' from the NHS app, click on 'Your health' then 'Test results and imaging'  then 'Hospital ordered test results’

• To access PKB 'Sharing (Professionals)' page from the NHS App,  click on 'Your health' then 'Your health choices and select 'Share records with your team'.  

Patients can change their language at the bottom of each page.

1. Log into NHS App with NHS login

2. Enter your NHS login email & password details

3. Enter security code sent to your phone

4. Click on any PKB jump-off point such as 'Test results & imaging' found under the 'Your health' section

5. Click continue to access PKB

6. Agree to share your NHS login information with PKB

7. Complete PKB registration form which includes setting up your password & security question & click 'Next' at the bottom of the page. 

8. Arrive in PKB & review sharing settings, click 'continue' and then 'save' on the last page. You will then be taken to the PKB jump-off you selected in step 4.

9. Registration complete - Welcome to Patients Know Best!

Once registered, you will be taken to the area of PKB you selected to go to from the NHS App. 

A welcome email will be sent to your email address. 

You no longer have to manually sign in when navigating to PKB from the NHS App, your NHS login can now do this for you. 

You can also log in directly to PKB from a web browser using your email address & the password you just created.  

1. Log into NHS App with NHS login

2. Enter your NHS login email

3. Enter NHS login password

4. Enter the security code sent to your phone

5. Click on any PKB jump-off point such as 'Test results & imaging' found under the  'Your health' section

6. Click continue to access PKB

7. Agree to share your NHS login information

8. Arrive in PKB 

1. Once in PKB, scroll to the footer to find the language dropdown

2. Select the language you would like from the dropdown

3. PKB will be translated

1. Click on  'View your messages' from the homepage or 'Messages' in the navigation menu

2. Click on 'Your hospital and specialist doctors'

3. Click 'Continue'

4. You will land on the PKB Events & messages page

1. Click on 'Your heath' in the main NHS App navigation menu

2. Click on 'Your health choices

3. Click on 'View links from your health team

3. Click 'Continue'

4. You will land on the PKB Library page

1. Click on 'Upcoming & past appointments' from the NHS homepage or from the 'Your health' page

2. Click on 'Hospital referrals and appointments' in the submenu  

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page & click on 'Additional appointment information'

4. Click 'Continue'

5. You will land on the PKB main 'Appointments' page

Appointment messaging

Some organisations offer appointment messaging, this allows you to send secure messages to reschedule or cancel your appointment to the appointments team.

If your organisation offers this service, you will see the option to request to reschedule or cancel your appointment when you click on the three dots at the top right of your appointment.  You can read more about appointment messaging here 

Ask to reschedule or cancel your appointment.

1. Click on 'Upcoming & past appointments' from the NHS homepage or from the 'Your health' page

2. Click on 'Hospital referrals and appointments' in the sub menu

3. Click on 'View or manage this appointment' for any appointment

4. If the appointment is from PKB, you will be directed to PKB. Click 'Continue'

5. You will land on the PKB 'View appointment' page

Appointment messaging

Some organisations offer appointment messaging, this allows you to send secure messages to reschedule or cancel your record to the appointments team. If the organisation that added the appointment offers this service, you will see buttons to reschedule or cancel your appointment.  You can read more about appointment messaging here 

No appointments to view

If the appointment is from an organisation that is not part of this programme,  or you have no appointments booked, you can still access your PKB appointments by clicking on ‘View appointments’ in the ‘Other services’ section. 

1. Click on 'Your health' from the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on 'Care plans'

3. Click 'Continue'

4. You will land on the PKB Plans page

1. Click on ' View and manage prescriptions' on the NHS App homepage or from the 'Your health' menu

2. Click on 'Hospital & other medicines'

3. Click 'Continue'

4. You will land on the PKB Medicines page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on ‘Your health choices’

3. Click on 'Track your symptoms'

4. Click on 'Track your health'

5. You will land on the PKB Symptoms page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on ‘Your health choices’

3. Click on 'Track your symptoms'

4. Click on 'Track your health'

5. You will land on the PKB 'Measurements' page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on ‘Your health choices’

3. Click on 'Track your symptoms'

4. Click on 'Track your health'

5. You will land on the PKB 'Journal' page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on 'Test results and imaging'

3. Click on 'Hospital-ordered Test results'

4. Click on 'Test results'

5. You will land on the PKB Tests page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on 'Test results and imaging'

3. Click on 'Hospital-ordered Test results

4. Click on 'Imaging reports'

5. You will land on the PKB Imaging page

1. Click on 'Your health' in the main NHS App navigation menu 

2. Click on 'Your health choices'

3. Click on 'Share records with your health team'

4. You will land on the PKB Professionals page

Notifications about new messages 

Patients receive native smartphone notifications from the NHS App when there are new messages for them in PKB. 

Patients receive these notifications for new activity in the Events & messages section, which includes messages from their professionals, new documents, information on hospital visits and consultations (questionnaires).

The patient can read their message from within the NHS App by tapping on the notification. 

To learn how to manage NHS App notifications, see https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/nhs-app-help-and-support/nhs-app-account-and-settings/managing-nhs-app-notifications/  

User Journey

• You will receive a message in your NHS App message inbox alongside an associated push notification. 

• Clicking on the push notification will take you through the authentication process to open the NHS app and then go straight to the message in the NHS App Messaging inbox. 

• The message will contain a summary of the appointment update and a link to view the appointment. 

• Clicking on the link will take you to the PKB ‘View appointment’ page.

Email notification fallback

To ensure you are contacted promptly about appointment updates whilst preventing notification overwhelm, we include the  following rules when sending NHS App N&M notifications:

1. If the message sent to the NHS App is read within 4 hours of sending, we will NOT send an email notification

2. We will send an email if:

   1. we receive a ‘rejected’ or ‘un-notified’ status 

   2. we don’t receive a ‘notified’ status within 1 hour

   3. if the NHS App message has not been opened within 4 hours

If you see this error screen it means the details on your NHS login do not match those on your PKB record so we were unable to link your accounts. 

Contact our support desk with the reference provided on the screen to troubleshoot. 

If you see this error screen it means your registration is complete but your organisation need to activate your record 

A clinician or administrator from any organisation with access to your record simply needs to log in to the system to activate your account, when this is complete, we will send you an email to you to let you know. 

If you see this error screen, it means the email linked to your NHS login is attached to a record in PKB already, which is not a patient record.  

 Please note that the NHS login is only to be used in conjunction with a patient record. You will need to make sure the email on your NHS login is not the same email used for your PKB professional or coordinator role so you can link it to your patient record. 

If you see this error screen, it means your NHS login details have changed since they were originally paired with PKB & the connection needs to be reset. Click on the link to reset the connection. 

 Users who have updated or changed their NHS login credentials  will be shown this screen which allows them to reconnect their NHS login to PKB to re-enable Single Sign On.

If you see this error screen, it means your clinical team has marked your record for no access. 

Please contact the clinical teams with access to your record to find out why you are unable to access. 

This may be a temporary restriction. Please use your existing PKB username and password to log in., or contact your clinical team if you have not yet registered and they can invite you via email. 

If a patient is aged 16 or over, they can claim or create a PKB record using NHS login, however if the Patient is under 16, PKB are unable to determine whether the user is mature enough to claim their account and will therefore prevent them from doing so. These patients will see a warning message when they try and access PKB from the NHS App which reads ‘You are too young to register’ Patients must be 16 or over to register for this service (Patients Know Best) using their NHS login.' 

Patients under 16 will need to be invited to claim their record by a healthcare professional who can assess whether they have sufficient maturity and capacity to make decisions relating to their health care. If a professional has already given the patient access, they can use NHS login to access their record. 

Organisations using Patients Know Best (PKB) might choose to use a custom PKB log in page. This allows them to have a login page with their own customised branding, artwork & links for users. 

If you (a patient) choose to register using your NHS login from an organisation's custom log-in page and you do not have an existing PKB record, you will be asked whether you are a patient of that organisation in the registration form

If you select yes, you will be added to the team, which means you can access that team's resources and the team can access the parts of your record that you choose to share. 

If you select 'No', you will not be added to that team and your record will not be shared, after completing registration you will not see any teams in the sharing section & you will see the default PKB welcome message on the home page (see below)