What is the number one priority for your website? Would you be surprised to find it is the ability to make, change or cancel appointments? That’s according to NHS England whose advice on creating a ‘highly usable and accessible GP website’ was recently updated in August 2023. With 62% of individuals visiting their GP’s website […]
Blog
Stepping up to health
Good news! Those who to date have struggled to reach the magic goal of ten thousand steps a day can now gain some comfort from a study which revealed that even four thousand steps can make a difference. The study, which was published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, aimed to build on previous […]
Understanding data: Improving health outcomes
Measure this, record that, track those changes: sometimes it can seem as though our lives are ruled by data. But as everyone in the healthcare sector knows, those individual data points can make a measurable difference to patient diagnosis and outcomes. That’s why digitising patient records is so important, enabling us to quickly share findings […]
Community rehabilitation
When we talk about the National Health Service it is all too easy to think of some large and impersonal entity. But talk to any individual and they are far more likely to talk about ‘my doctor,’ ‘my local hospital,’ ‘my physiotherapist.’ And that quasi-one-to-one relationship sits at the heart of delivering effective healthcare. The […]
Integrating care
“Integrated care systems (ICSs) represent the best opportunity in a generation for a transformation in our health and care system.” The executive summary from The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt’s review into integrated care systems leads with that bold vision of the future of health provision within the UK. However, the subsequent sentences carry a warning […]
Closing the cancer care gap
“We call on you, whoever and wherever you are, to play your part in creating a cancer-free world.” That call to action was issued by the organisers of World Cancer Day 2023 which took place on 4th February. Commenting that every individual has the ability to make a difference, whether large or small, the event’s organisers believe that when […]
Concerning excess deaths
The news that nine percent more deaths were recorded in 2022 than in 2019 (the last year before the pandemic) has naturally given rise to a fair amount of debate. It may well be that we have to wait for the results of in depth studies before we see a more definitive indication of the […]
International Universal Health Coverage Day
“When health as a fundamental human right is upheld by all countries and all sectors, we lay a strong foundation for building the world we all want and deserve.” That quote from the World Health Organisation (WHO) perfectly illustrates why in 2017 it decided to launch International Universal Health Coverage Day. The day, which is […]
Planning for winter storms
As we slide past the middle of November we have to admit that, so far, autumn has been a fairly mild affair. So much so that Armistice Day 2022 was the warmest on record. Is this warm autumn going to continue or should we be preparing for storms ahead? According to the Met Office’s long […]
Menopause: Cognition and mood
Last month we wrote about a campaign to reduce the stresses which health practitioners encounter on a daily basis. In our article we highlighted a few coping strategies suggested by the BMA. And we looked at how even simple administration changes such as sending out appointment reminders by SMS text or taking credit card details […]