| Chapter
7 NHS Services and the Internet Overview The massive development of Internet-based services is leading to a society where many things are possible simply by 'pointing and clicking'. Services such as Internet shopping and banking - virtually unheard of two years ago are now mainstream activities. Indeed, in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2000 the Internet book supply company Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk dispatched more than 3.2 million items and had sales in excess of £640 million. Just as businesses have moved to the Internet it is perhaps inevitable that health consumers should also look to this new medium to see what services are available. Certainly, there are services that offer online medical consultations. Cyberdocs, http://www.cyberdocs.com for example, enables anyone with an Internet connection (and a credit card) to obtain a private and confidential one-to-one consultation with a US trained physician. In the UK e-med http://www.e-med.co.uk and Med4u http://www.med4u.co.uk offer similar services. Anyone who wishes to use an online consultation needs to consider a number of issues. First, is a virtual consultation, where the doctor cannot actually see you, very useful? Secondly, what duty of care do these services provide? At the present time if you are treated in a way that is deemed to be negligent, formal action can be taken against the doctor or relevant health authority. These safeguards many not exist in an online environment. In many ways, however, this type of service is still somewhat peripheral and outside the interest of most health consumers. In contrast, finding information about local NHS services, or trying to determine which hospital provides the best care, are more common concerns and ones we focus on in this chapter. Key topics covered in this chapter Useful URL's discussed in this chapter |
| Web site | Description | Address |
| NHS Directory | Searchable directory of NHS services - including GP surgeries, pharmacies and NHS Trusts. |
http://www.nhs.uk |
Hospital waiting times |
In-patient and outpatient waiting times for every English NHS Trust. |
http://www.doh.gov.uk/waitingtimes |
GP Web site database |
Ascertain if your GP surgery has a Web site via this directory. |
http://www.internet-gp.com |
| Find-a-dentist | Identify local dentists via this service, developed by the British Dental Association. |
http://www.bda-findadentist.org.uk/ |