Fix: “The ability to send Clinical Communication messages must be enabled” in Best Practice

A medical practice contacted us because their reception staff could not email pathology results to patients from Best Practice. Every time they tried, they hit an error message about Clinical Communication messages needing to be enabled. The fix turned out to be a per-patient consent setting that is easy to miss if you have not encountered it before. Here is how to resolve it.

Symptoms

When attempting to email clinical correspondence (such as investigation results or pathology reports) from a patient file in Best Practice, users receive the following error:

The ability to send Clinical Communication messages must be enabled to perform this action.

This error typically appears after clicking Email copy to patient from the Correspondence In section of a patient record.

Affected Software

• Application: Best Practice (Bp Premier)
• Platform: Windows
• Related Services: Bp Comms, SMTP email configuration

Cause

Best Practice requires each patient to have Clinical Communication consent enabled before the software will allow emails to be sent from their file. Even if the practice has email configured at the system level, the per-patient Comms Consent settings must be explicitly turned on. This is a privacy safeguard built into Bp Premier to ensure patients have agreed to receive clinical communications electronically.

Resolution

Step 1: Verify practice-level email is configured

Before addressing patient consent, confirm email is working at the practice level:

1. Go to Setup > Configuration > Email
2. Confirm outgoing SMTP settings are configured (server, port, credentials)
3. If using Microsoft 365, ensure Authenticated SMTP is enabled for the sending account in the Microsoft 365 admin centre
4. Ensure Enable TLS encryption for outgoing mail is ticked
5. Send a test email to confirm SMTP is working

Step 2: Enable Clinical Communication consent for the patient

This is the most common fix for this error:

1. Open the patient record (press F2 and search, or go to File > Open Patient)
2. Click View details to open the Patient Details screen
3. Click the Comms Consent button on the right-hand side
4. Under Consent Options, tick the relevant communication types:
   • Results (for investigation and pathology results)
   • Clinical Messages (for general clinical communications)
5. Confirm the patient has a valid email address recorded in their Demographics
6. Save and close the consent window

Step 3: Retry sending the email

1. Return to the patient record
2. Select Correspondence In from the left-hand tree
3. Highlight the relevant correspondence item
4. Click Email copy to patient
5. The error should no longer appear and the email will send successfully

Important Notes

• Consent is per-patient. There is no global toggle to enable this for all patients at once. Each patient record needs Comms Consent configured individually.
• No email on file. If the patient has no email address in their Demographics, the send will still fail even with consent enabled. Always check that a valid email address is recorded.
• Microsoft 365 SMTP. If your practice uses Microsoft 365 for email, you may need to enable Authenticated SMTP in the M365 admin centre for the sending mailbox. Without this, emails may fail silently.
• Patient opt-out. If a patient has actively opted out of electronic communications, Bp Premier will block the action regardless of consent settings.

Related Resources

• How to Install Best Practice Certificates
• Installation of Primary Sense on Best Practice Servers
• Best Practice – An Error Occurred Attempting to connect to the HI service
• Understanding Bp Comms Consent (Best Practice KB)
• Set Comms Consent for Patients (Best Practice KB)
• Configure Bp Premier to Use Email (Best Practice KB)

If you need help configuring Best Practice or resolving clinical software issues, get in touch with our team.