I need a check-up.

Well actually my wife tells me I need a check-up – so that is much more serious.    Middle age and Christmas excess leads to thoughts of diabetes but that is another matter.

At my primary care provider (family doctor) it is pretty straight forward to make an appointment online.  Though I have to wait 2 weeks to see my GP which seems a bit long.  But such is the price we pay for socialised medicine.

But the purpose of this post is not to whine about the UK’s NHS waiting lists.  (Though I could if I wanted to!)

Rather it is to look at the ways that our healthcare providers allow us to communicate with them.   My PCP allows me to make appointments with an online booking system but otherwise

communication is via telephone and letter rather than email.  Even more irritating the PCP will often act as a gate keeper to communication with other more specialist services.   (Though this situation is improving in the UK it still has a long way to go).

So what am I getting at?   Well it strikes me that in these days of social media and apps that healthcare providers (doctors, hospitals etc)  not having even embraced email seems more than a bit silly.

Indeed as regular readers will know our son is autistic.  This means that we have to attend meetings with various people across the provider world.  In one of these meeting I asked if we could communicate by email.  She actually looked a bit shocked that a “client” should want to be able to communicate quickly and efficiency.    Naturally she turned down the request briskly.    That was less than a month ago and I dread to think what not being able to communicate via email has cost the British tax payer.   I’ve spend time on the phone and received costly letter (as has my doctor) when a 30 second email could have sorted everything.

So I’m wondering what the situation in like in different countries.  Do feel free to share your experiences of what works best (or doesn’t) in your country?  How do you communicate with your healthcare providers and how might communication be improved?  Do you use apps and social media?  Would you like to?

As regular followers of this blog may know I have spent quite a large part of my career in healthcare market research.  This sort of explains some of the pictures adorning the blog.  They are of a new way to collect feedback by users of a hospital local to me.

So I’m also wondering what you think of this kind of market research taking place in hospitals.  Do anonymous research surveys have their value or are they just an excuse for Public Relations puff from the hospital’s marketing department?

Use the comments box below to share your views.

Thanks in advance.