Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
By 2020, 40% of healthcare will be accessed online. That's the prediction of Professor Clare Gerada, until recently the chair of the Royal College of GPs.
Her claims have generated much debate, which crystallised around one central objection - the argument that online health services are not inclusive.
In particular, it is claimed, a move towards online healthcare would be to the detriment of the elderly, the very people that need the NHS most. I wholeheartedly disagree.
Take, for example, the pioneering Patient Access health portal. Recent figures show that visits to the portal, where patients can book GP appointments, view test results, order repeat medication, view their medical record and message their practice, have risen by over 60% since June 2013.
Who is visiting the site? Sceptics would no doubt say it is only the tech generation - internet savvy twenty and thirty-somethings that bank, shop and socialise online. They'd be wrong. Over a quarter of visits were made by those over the age of 55, and many service users are in their 80s. Furthermore, it is surely axiomatic that "digital native" children or grandchildren can and do assist their "digital immigrant" relatives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-spencer/online-healthcare-just-do_b_4497506.html
Her claims have generated much debate, which crystallised around one central objection - the argument that online health services are not inclusive.
In particular, it is claimed, a move towards online healthcare would be to the detriment of the elderly, the very people that need the NHS most. I wholeheartedly disagree.
Take, for example, the pioneering Patient Access health portal. Recent figures show that visits to the portal, where patients can book GP appointments, view test results, order repeat medication, view their medical record and message their practice, have risen by over 60% since June 2013.
Who is visiting the site? Sceptics would no doubt say it is only the tech generation - internet savvy twenty and thirty-somethings that bank, shop and socialise online. They'd be wrong. Over a quarter of visits were made by those over the age of 55, and many service users are in their 80s. Furthermore, it is surely axiomatic that "digital native" children or grandchildren can and do assist their "digital immigrant" relatives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-spencer/online-healthcare-just-do_b_4497506.html