Welsh want to contact GPs online

Tags: GP GPs Informing Healthcare repeat prescriptions Security Wales

30 Oct 2007

Almost four out of five internet users would like to be able to contact their GP practice online, according to a survey conducted in Wales.

Informing Healthcare, the Welsh NHS IT programme, questioned 313 internet users in July and August this year about how they would like to use the internet for healthcare.

A total of 78% said that they would order repeat prescriptions, book an appointment with their GP or update their details online if these services were available.

This month five practices, based in Anglesey, Bridgend, Cardiff, Llandysul and Swansea, have begun to test different aspects of Informing Healthcare’s secure patient website My Health Online.

In all five practices patients will be able to use My Health Online to book appointments and request repeat prescriptions and at three of the surgeries patients will also be able to look at their health records online.

Findings from the trial will begin to be evaluated from December and Informing Healthcare says its long term is to give everyone in Wales the chance to review their record over the internet.

Informing Healthcare’s clinical director and GP Dr Martin Murphy said: “The results of this research provide a strong indication that people want to use the internet to provide them with easier access to basic health tasks – such as contacting their GP practice and ordering their medicines.”

The survey found that women aged between 30 and 59 were likely to be the biggest users of online health services.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of those surveyed said a password plus additional characters from another password offered appropriate security to access their medical record.

Almost the same number (73%) indicated that they would prefer to receive a password/pin in the post rather than collect it from a GP or elsewhere.

Dr Murphy said: “We want to make access to online health services as easy as possible without compromising on security. These findings echo information we have also gathered from meetings and discussions with a number of patient groups across the country. People are saying to us ‘keep it safe, but keep it simple’.”

Reader's Comments

Already happening

dyfrig@bryndarland.co.uk

31 Oct 07 08:10

We've been offering appointments and repeat prescriptions on-line for well over twelve months. The response is usually positive and the demand is creeping up, but doing so very slowly. It is nothing like 40% of expected internet users. We use Emis' own system and I'd be wary of using anything Government would put forward as I've confidence in the former and none in the latter.

out of interest....

31 Oct 07 10:10

when was the last time anyone read an article about the English patients being asked what they wanted from their IT programme?

repeat prescriptions online

paulhowie@tiscali.co.uk

31 Oct 07 18:10

Many surgeries have their own sites for ordering prescriptions online. Pharmacies can also subscribe to myrepeats.com enabling the request to go via the pharmacies.

Worthing and Welsh internet users

02 Nov 07 14:11

In response to the heading of this article, seems a bit of a leap to suggest "Welsh want to contact GPs online" when the survey was carried out on a subset of the population, internet users. As a proportion of the people who use their GP most, it's an even smaller proportion. Obviously as the population ages then the proportion using internet will increase, but it's an inaccurate conclusion to say the market research which has been carried out show's this now.

The repeat request handling scheme mentioned by the poster above is only available in Worthing. It also raises the question of data confidentiality as this 3rd party organisation is neither the gp or the nominated pharmacist (although it is a company jointly owned by some local GPs and pharmacies). So does it have the permission/jurisdiction to be discussing,passing on and presumably storing electronically script information between gp and pharmacy?

A more nationaly available service is Pharmacy2u.co.uk/prescription. They are actually the regulated NHS pharmacy chosen by the patient as their pharmacy, so have the patient's permission to discuss medications with the GP.