Closure of NHS Mail (@nhs.net) email accounts at UHS

From September 2023 University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is starting the process of closing all NHS Mail accounts (those ending in @nhs.net) for individuals and shared mailboxes currently used by the trust.

They will be replaced with new UHS email addresses (ending in @uhs.nhs.uk) for individuals and shared mailboxes.

We estimate the process will take around four months to complete and will be finished by end of December 2023.

Why are we doing this?

UHS email accounts have recently received security accreditation from NHS England, meaning that our own @uhs.nhs.uk email system has the same level of security as NHS Mail.

You can find out more information on security standards for email systems within the NHS and check our security accreditation here: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhsmail/the-secure-email-standard

Now that we have received security accreditation from NHS England, we no longer need to use NHS Mail.

We are not maintaining two email systems as this would duplicate costs for the NHS.

What happens next?

In the coming months we will be phasing out the use of NHS Mail and creating new accounts and mailboxes to replace the ones that are closing.

Once a new mailbox has been created with UHS email address, automatic replies will be sent from the old mailbox giving the new email address to use.

Although the old mailboxes will be monitored for a short period of time, we recommend that external users of shared mailboxes start using the new UHS email mailboxes as soon as possible.

If you are an external user of a UHS shared email inbox, please update your contact details to our UHS addresses as soon as you know the new address is available for use.

If you have further questions, please email the team here.