A Text Message to Confirm or Cancel Your Doctor Appointment

The Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) will notify you ten days in advance of your appointment.

If you receive an SMS on your phone, it may be a reminder of an upcoming medical appointment with the Canary Islands Health Service. The new initiative allows patients to confirm, cancel, or request a new date if they cannot attend.

The patient will receive the SMS ten days before the appointment and can:

• Confirm attendance.
• Cancel the appointment.
• Request a rescheduling.

The text message contains a personalized link that leads to a simple web app showing the appointment’s details—location, service, and time—and the three options mentioned above.

Project Launch

During a meeting today, Adasat Goya, director of the Canary Islands Health Service, met with Tomás Pérez, director of the Fuerteventura Health Area, and María Luisa Naranjo, manager of the island’s health services. They discussed the rollout of the project.

The reminder‑manager system is an interactive SMS‑based communication tool that redirects users to a lightweight application where they can confirm, cancel, or ask for a date change. The service is built in collaboration with the 012 Information and Telephone Assistance Service and, for the first time, lets patients interact with the system regarding hospital consultations—an option that did not exist before.

Goya emphasized that the tool aims to serve patients with the shortest possible delay, improve the management of consultations, and reduce waiting lists.

“This new tool helps improve communication between the Majorca hospital and its users and allows us to optimise outpatient activity, since cancelled appointments can be rescheduled and we can avoid empty slots in the agenda caused by no‑shows,” Goya said.

Pilot Phase

The pilot began in May at:

• Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria (Tenerife)
• Hospital Universitario de La Palma

It has also been launched in the health services of La Gomera and the Insular‑University Hospital Complex – Materno‑Infantil. The system will be gradually extended to all Canary hospitals to streamline specialist‑consultation scheduling and improve patient access to planned medical assessments.

The application replaces earlier, locally‑developed solutions that some centers had implemented, providing a single, uniform tool for every facility and equalising patient experience regardless of the reference hospital linked to their health card.

Telephone Support

If a patient does not respond to the SMS, the reminder system triggers a telephone‑call protocol. An operator will call the patient—either on a mobile or a landline—to maximise contact chances and record the patient’s confirmation, cancellation, or rescheduling request.

Access Requirements

Patients must keep their health‑card data up to date to use the SMS service.

Collaboration with 012

The project is carried out together with the Government of the Canary Islands’ 012 Information and Telephone Assistance Service, which will also provide information and guidance about the new service. The 012 team has been reinforced with more than 400 professionals to support users.