If your surgery has not had true Shared mailboxes before and staff use Outlook desktop you should read the following which explains:

• How/where sent items are stored when using Shared mailboxes
• Recommendations for mailbox management
• How to reply/forward from a Shared mailbox
• How to send an email from a Shared mailbox (rather than you own mailbox)

Where are sent items stored when using a Shared mailbox?

When you send, reply or forward an email using a Shared mailbox in Outlook desktop, the item is saved to your own mailbox folder (Sent items). NHSmail has a policy in place so the email is automatically copied to the 'Sent items' folder in the Shared mailbox. This may not be immediate as Outlook desktop requires more time to send/receive for all folders.

This ensures you (the person performing the action) have evidence of your work and that colleagues with access to the mailbox can also access this.

If you find items are not appearing in the Shared mailbox 'Sent items' after several minutes; please raise this with your normal IT service desk to investigate and potential escalate to the NHSmail helpdesk.

What should we do with emails after actioning?

Ensure items you need to retain for a period are moved out of the inbox to a folder with a retention policy applied (e.g. 1 month delete, 6 month delete, 1 year delete). This will help ensure the mailbox doesn't fill and and can remove the need to manually delete older content.

Do not use 'Deleted items' as storage for later reference, only items you no longer need; this folder does not allow you control of how long emails are retained.

Reply to or Forward a message from a Shared mailbox

Use Reply, Reply All & Forward actions as you would in your own mailbox. The recipient will see the Shared mailbox address and display name as the sender.

New email from a Shared mailbox

Strongly recommended: Before sending emails from a Shared mailbox using Outlook desktop, force Outlook to re-download the Global Address Book: File > Account Settings > Download Address Book
This process may take considerable time as NHSmail has over 2 million mailboxes; a progress bar will show at bottom of Outlook. Once complete it will no longer be present.

When you send a New email in Outlook desktop, this will initially be from your own mailbox (in your name). To send this email from another mailbox use the From button and change to the mailbox you wish to send from.

From option or the other address is missing?

You need to add these once on your machine and then will be remain available.

1. Start a New email
   
   
2. Under Options click From to enable this.
   If you are using the 'Simplified' ribbon (menu), you will find this within the 'more options' (...) menu.
   
   
3. Click From then Other Email Address...
   ...and on the Send From Other Email Address window click From to search the Address Book
    
4. On 'Choose Sender', Type in the address and click the arrow to search for the Shared mailbox address.
   Select the mailbox name in the results and click Ok.
   You may need to change the 'Address Book' option to 'Global Address List'
   
   
5. Click Ok to confirm on the Send From Other Email Address window
   The Shared mailbox is now available to select. Repeat steps 3-6 for other mailboxes you need to send from.