Digital access to healthcare in Bath & North East Somerset and Swindon
We first asked people about their everyday access to and use of digital technology, before going on to explore how they currently engaged with health services. This included asking whether or not they used digital technology, about any barriers this presented, and any help received.
Feedback was gathered via an online questionnaire, one to one engagement sessions and focus groups including older people and families with young children.
Downloads
The first thing that was said in one group when asked about using digital technology was, I want to be treated as a person not a robot!
Results
- When asked about how they preferred to contact health services, respondents’ first choice was telephone call (84%) followed by in person (53%), with 25% opting for an online form.
- When asked how they made medical appointments, a similar percentage used the phone (84%) with 38% going in person. The % of people making appointments online reduced to 15%.
- 84% of respondents also received confirmation of appointments or reminders via text message. People also reported receiving letters (43%) and emails (25%). It is likely that this varied depending on who the communication was from, for example GP or hospital.
- When it comes to ordering prescriptions, a higher proportion of people used an online method.
- Whilst 28% found it easy to access their medical records online, nearly 59% did not or rarely tried accessing their medical records this way.
- When asked if they thought health services should support people with accessing technology 67% said yes, with a further 28% being unsure, 9% said ‘no’ with one person saying ‘NHS is for health not for tech support’.
- Only 11% of respondents had received help from health services to access digital technology for their health with 87% not having received any IT help from healthcare providers.
Recommendations
The primary recommendation is summed up in this quote:
"Don’t assume that everyone has the capacity or facilities to easily access any form of technology. A variety of possibilities of having dialogue with the healthcare world must be continued in order not to exclude people."
- For healthcare providers and ‘overseers’ to undertake regular audits of compliance with the NHS Accessible Information Standard.
- For consideration to be given to developing a local, BSW wide quality mark to publicly indicate that a healthcare provider has built inclusive digital services, based on the Accessible Information Standard.
- For healthcare providers, in particular GPs, to consider providing annual opportunities for their patients to have ‘hands on’ support to get online and to use digital healthcare Apps. This would ideally be in partnership with their Patient Participation Group.
- That Patient Participation Groups and other healthcare user forums be encouraged to engage on these issues with their members, both to share good practice and challenge bad practice.
