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How many NHS-associated websites do you have to access?

John Gray

John Gray

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
By that I mean, how many NHS websites do you receive information from about consultations, test results, letters, appointments and so on?
Currently I have FIVE, each with a different logon requirement:
  • Systmonline ..... prescriptions, doctor info, test results, etc​
  • NHS 'app' website ..... pretty much the same​
  • Dr Doctor portal ..... hospital appointments and letters, from various disciplines​
  • Patients Know Best ..... kidney test results and letters​
  • My Medical Record ..... PSA Tracker Team​
I wonder whether anyone in overall control has ever thought of combining them, into, say, "a Doctor in your Pocket" ?!
 
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Im the same.....nhs app....systemonline....the new one thats supposed to replace systemonline that no one uses.......doctors own surgery site that no one uses cos systemonline does it better.......oh and mydesmond which my doctor put me onto.........oh and one called xyla wellbeing which is very similar to my desmond but for weightloss but i dont use it cos i dont have the time to do everything twice! Lol
 
Prescription, test results, GP appointments are all on my NHS app.
Retinal scan is different
Hospital a third. Kind of. I am on a waiting list which is on the NHS app. But whenever I get an appointment (e.g. pre-opp which is valid for 4 months), the appointment comes as a link via email (and text and post).
 
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Yes it is a bit daft.

When my brother - an IT pro - was spending a lot of time in and around hospitals he came to the conclusion that the NHS internal systems are even more chaotic. Many different systems with litte or no integration. I remember the day he spent in an assessment ward where seemingly every specialist who saw him took a history and entered it on their own system because the internal systems were not integrated. He got really annoyed when one of them looked at his particular screen and said, "...I see you are a smoker...." when not only had he never smoked but was a rabid anti smoking campaigner. Goodness knows what other misinformation about him was sculling about.

The whole lot needs to be pulled into one system but like all these things it is easy to say but hard to do and in this case it is very,very,very,very,very, hard, both technically and politically.
 
Docb said:
The whole lot needs to be pulled into one system
Click to expand...
Big IT systems end up (pretty universally) as very costly and not what you wanted. That's what happened last time there was an attempt to unify the NHS IT systems. I think gradual change is much more likely to end up successful, so aim for areas of compatibility and interoperability.

What's stopping that from working is lack of investment which is pretty much inevitable: there's always something else that deserves more money than replacing that PC that takes 5 minutes to boot in the morning. Politicians (and officials) could ring-fence funding but they'll usually want something bold and identifiable (AI for everyone!) they can put on their record. Which (when it arrives) won't work that well and won't improve the daily experience of staff trying to use it.

(Bit like HS2. What would be much better would be to fund continuous rail building, improving the whole network gradually, including new lines to augment or replace older ones. Then we'd have the experience (and local suppliers) who could realistically build HS2 at a not insane cost.)
 
John Gray said:
  • []Systmonline ..... prescriptions, doctor info, test results, etc[/]
  • []NHS 'app' website ..... pretty much the same[/]
  • []Dr Doctor portal ..... hospital appointments and letters, from various disciplines[/]
Click to expand...
These are all in the nhs app
 
Not heard of Doctor Portal, or My Medical Record Checker.
I have System Online and NHS App, not registered to use Patient Knows Best, as it wants another password and I don't use services that require it,
 
grovesy said:
Not heard of Doctor Portal, or My Medical Record Checker.
I have System Online and NHS App, not registered to use Patient Knows Best, as it wants another password and I don't use services that require it,
Click to expand...
To be precise, it's
the "Dr Doctor" portal, which has been adopted by my local hospital to make their letters available, and
"My Medical Record", which you wouldn't want to / be able to access if you didn't have prostate problems.
 
Docb said:
When my brother - an IT pro - was spending a lot of time in and around hospitals he came to the conclusion that the NHS internal systems are even more chaotic. Many different systems with little or no integration. I remember the day he spent in an assessment ward where seemingly every specialist who saw him took a history and entered it on their own system because the internal systems were not integrated. [...]
The whole lot needs to be pulled into one system but like all these things it is easy to say but hard to do and in this case it is very,very,very,very,very, hard, both technically and politically.
Click to expand...
I worked in IT for nearly 50 years, and agree with your brother!
"The history of large IT [Government] Projects is that of lateness, over budget, and not doing what the users wanted..."
 
John Gray said:
True - there is a LOT of duplication among these websites. Which was partly the point I was making...
Click to expand...
I don’t use any of the others you listed just the nhs app which has it all. Why would I download systmonline to order prescription when the nhs app does it
 
My GP surgery used Patient Access, but they have recently made their prescription ordering and medical records available on the NHS app, so I don't need to use it anymore.
 
John Gray said:
Systmonline is the one my GP surgery recommends from which to order prescriptions.
Click to expand...
It’s clearly a problem for you though to have gone to the trouble of writing a post about it so just delete that app and order it through the nhs app.
 
For me in Scotland it’s my GP practice website for ordering meds (can be a bit hit and miss) and My Diabetes My Way for results and past meds ordered. The latter isn’t as up to date as I’d like - depends on who’s uploading data if it’s correct or current
 
John Gray said:
For me, it's not an app - it's a website.
And Systmonline is considerably fewer clicks to get into than the NHS 'app' website!
Click to expand...
The NHS app I just open on my phone, use Face ID to fill in the username and password and login. One click.

You can’t complain about having to use too many apps, when there’s a solution that uses one app that you just don’t want to use.
 
Er, what's this PSA tracker one, John? My husband and at least one other member here's husband have had prostactectomies for cancer, my OH and I are both trustees of a local prostate cancer support group (ladies can't get prostate cancer but that doesn't mean they never suffer from it! - so we deserve support, too.)
 
I have access to everything on my NHS app. The hospital eye screening letter came through dotpost.com but results are all posted on the NHS app. All correspondence from the hospital re a bcc was also available on the app. I got a letter about my eye screening OCT scanner separately. It specifically said after my last scan that I don’t need OCT, but I think maybe they’re all being done at this new location. But I’m sure the results will be posted on the app as usual
 
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