Vocal Voices

You know it makes sense, well it does to Martha Lane-Fox.

If you want a repeat prescription: go online. If you want an appointment: go online. It all sounds very jolly.

The repeat prescription idea is fine. I already do mine by phone to the pharmacy; going online is only another option, but what about appointments.

As things stand I have two choices: Phone, and hope somebody answers; or make a visit and book over the counter. Phoning is a joke. I have been in reception and seen receptionists ignore the phone till it rings out. They are probably doing other important things or are not detailed for the task, but it looks bad to patients. A personal visit is my best bet, depending on the problem, but then the surgery is just down the road. Others are not that lucky or could be too ill to make the journey.

So, going online seems like a good idea, surely? Well it all depends. Will all bookings be available to be booked 24/7 or will they be limited in number and time slot? If there are not some restrictions put in place then there could be more problems than answers. Millions of people are already familiar with booking things online and they will be the ones who are most likely to take up the online appointment service, but in doing so those without the Internet or who cannot use the system could be locked out. They are more likely to be the elderly, the ones who rely on their GPs the most.

Our doctors surgery have had on-line facilities for repeat prescriptions for some time,
and we use them now, with no problems.
Booking of appointments is also available, but we prefer to do this by telephone, as
this enables us to discuss any available options.

I book all our appointments on line. I can ring up and be told that they have no free appointments for the next two weeks, go online and find that in actual fact they have and I can look for the doctor that I want and book with her.

Its not that they are lying about having no appointments when I ring - its because so many appointments per week are blocked out for people to book online.

I suppose though that if they didn't block those appointments out I could be booking one at the same time that the receptionist was booking it with someone on the phone.#

I prefer to do as much as possible online as it saves speaking to the rotweiller of a receptionist

Debih, does that mean when you book online you can only have one of the slots set aside or are you allowed to roam freely through the all appointments?

And what happens to the slots set aside for online booking? If they are not taken up are they lost to everyone?

Aggers makes a good point about discussing options. That is not available online.

It is not as simple as Martha is making out.

I am not against the idea, but I think that a lot of work needs to be done to make it practical and efficient.

All very well for those of us who are compute savvy, but setting aside that block of appointments for those who go online seems a bit unfair to those who either prefer, or have to, phone instead

Personally I use online for my repeats, but phone for appointments, unless I happen to be down there anyway.

Mhy daughters doctors use a callback system in strict rotation. It seems to work.

personally I would always use online. As far as I am concerned, the less people trying to interpret my wishes the better.

We prefer not to have repeat prescriptions sent "direct to the pharmacy" because there is more than one pharmacy that we can use. Notwithstanding that, Mrs O was a couple of years ago put on on-line pharmacy prescriptions without her knowledge. This led to all sorts of confusion when she went to pick up the expected paperwork from the receptionists who were (as is normal at our particular surgery) extremely less than helpful - "nothing to do with us" - and to compound the issue, the pharmacy denied all knowledge of the prescription as well. Fed up with being passed from pillar to post, it culminated with us complaining to the surgery practice manager, and we have since reiterated that we do not wish to be put on-line for prescriptions.

Master O, on the other hand, opted for "direct to the pharmacy" repeat prescription last year for an IBS condition. Somehow, it got over-ordered, and then inadvertently doubled-up! Talk about the sorcerer's apprentice .... We had packets of the stuff in every cupboard and also in the garage. We could even have opened our own pharmacy. Even the pharmacy lady began joking we'd need a wheel-barrow .... took ages to sort the bureaucracy out on that as well!

As for appointments, yes, on-line is an option here - we find telephoning is pretty much impossible, and we have always preferred to book with the receptionists anyway. However, that in itself is becoming more and more difficult. We might have to look at booking on-line before too long, though, as it does seem to be the trend ......

Marthe Lane Fox said something about the need for the NHS to undergo "An IT revolution"? I had a genuine laugh at that!

They last time they tried an IT revolution the system had to be written off at a cost of £12 billion.

The NHS does desperately need an IT revolution, but good luck with that one, because you will need it. In some hospitals if you are a patient with two separate departments you will have two separate sets of handwritten notes. Plus the ones your GP holds.

I applied for a job last time in the great NHS IT leap forward and |I came out of the interview shocked. Because it was 100% certain that the project as it stood was going to fail; and not fail in a small way but an epic, ocean going fail. Which it duly did.

Hopefully lessons will have been learned for the next go.

EMIS works well for me although it usually says " Invalid password" but then it works anyway!

I am not surprised Suff prefers online, it is his life, but others are not so savvy. They are the ones I worry about.

As for the system. there is no need for it to be anything other than local to the surgery so hopefully no £12bn disaster Cromwell mentions. A lot will depend on who provides the software and and how individual surgeries set it up and if that is for their benefit or that of the patients.

Keeping EMIS well away from things would be a start. I failed to get the job at second interview stage, but a friend succeeded. It took no time at all for him to hate the top down structure of the business: it was their way of the highway, he eventually took the highway.