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How ridiculous.

Sporadic Sparkly

Towards the end of November, I had received two e-mails from one of the GPs at my local surgery. However, as I am not in the habit of regularly checking my e-mails, I was unaware of their existence until last weekend.

One of the two e-mails included a link for an annual review of the anti-depressant medication I take. Of late I have been feeling as though everything and anything (no matter how simple) is an effort, and requires far more energy than I have at my disposal. As a result of how I've been feeling, it had taken me until this morning to act on that e-mail.

I clicked on the link, but when the web page loaded I discovered I couldn't respond, because the medication review requested by the GP had expired. There was nothing in the e-mail stating that I needed to respond by a certain date, or within a specified number of days.

To be clear, I don't feel any sense of distress about this, and I certainly won't be losing any sleep over it. I understand the need for the annual medication review, but if the online link for it was time sensitive, then it just strikes me as a tad ridiculous.

Parents

  • That’s so ridiculous, I think Cinnabar_wing is right I reckon they try to deter people from making appointments.

    When I was under mental health services they sent me this website with resources on it for helping with mental health and when I clicked that link, bearing in mind it was the same day the link was sent, when I clicked it the page opened and said this page is unavailable. Lol. When I messaged them and said the woman apologised and said she’d send a different one. The next one did work.

    My GP surgery phased emails out completely more less, now it’s letters, texting and they have their own whatsapp chat which was setup earlier this year. It basically updates you on scripts and appointments, and you can check to see if things like bloods are back which is helpful. Suits me way better than having to call up and ask. The only thing you still have to do is phone up to arrange an appointment to see a GP or nurse.

  • in reply to Meheehee

    I really dislike the way the NHS is going, and the fact that it now seems to forcing people to be more reliant on the likes of smart phones and apps. Although there are still ways and means of doing things without smart phones, I think the NHS is now deliberately trying to make it as difficult for possible for patients who refuse to embrace technology, or struggle to use it.

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  • in reply to Meheehee

    I really dislike the way the NHS is going, and the fact that it now seems to forcing people to be more reliant on the likes of smart phones and apps. Although there are still ways and means of doing things without smart phones, I think the NHS is now deliberately trying to make it as difficult for possible for patients who refuse to embrace technology, or struggle to use it.

Children
  • in reply to Meheehee
    Meheehee said:
    It’s great for people who use it but so many people don’t use smartphones

    I think what is driving this is that the number of "holdouts" from using smartphones is dropping so fast that they are becoming statistically insignificant, so in Spoks words "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".

    To illustrate this, here is the graph of smartphone use by age group - note how fast the elderly are adopting their use: (from www.uswitch.com/.../ )

    I agree that there needs to be an option left for these people to use old tech but I do suspect they will increasingly be ignored if we do not help them to learn how to use the tech.

    I've taught lots of people to use smart phones from those in the retirement complex where my mother lives and many are in their 80s and 90s. Most are quite capable of learning and find a lot of use for it (including Grindr would you believe!) and find the new options this opens up to them to be amazing.

    There will always be stubborn hold outs or those with mental issues but I think these people are also likely to have issues with the existing system for various reasons.

    It will all come down to whether it is cost effective for the service provider (GP / bank etc) to maintain and staff a legacy system just for the handful of people who will not change.

    In an ideal world both systems would be supplied but these companies are all driven by cost now so it is inevitable they will follow what is cost effective.

    Perhaps we should work more on enabling people to use the tech instead and use some of the abundant older but stil usable tech we often discard when we upgrade.

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    I completely agree. My mum and I have had this conversation a lot.

    It’s great for people who use it but so many people don’t use smartphones or even have a computer. It’s the digital age and basically they are making it impossible or very nearly impossible to survive without all this tech. When it comes to appointments if anything digital has to be done I do it for my gran because she hasn’t got anything that can use it.

    Same with banking as well, so much of it is digital now and all the branches in town are closing. Where I live there are two branches still open, the others are gone and the buildings are disused.

    It’s not fair for a lot of people, they need to take a step back and look at this because if my gran didn’t have me and my family she wouldn’t be able to manage half of it by herself. They don’t cater enough for people who can’t or don’t use the tech.