31 October 2006
I went to the William Budd centre at Knowle West Health Park, where I met with Vicki Staatz, Practice Manager. Vicki said that there were issues around patient confidentiality that limited the ways in which she envisaged extending on current uses of digital technology in her working context. However, she added that in time this may change, but that the systems aren’t yet secure enough. She told me that patients, realistically, come to William Budd to see a doctor or a nurse, and that’s really what they want, so beyond supporting that happening she’s not sure how much digital technology can help.
Vicki told me that the plasma information screens that are in the waiting room are fine, and that they are something for people to look at.
Vicki then told me about a photography project that is happening at William Budd. This young people’s project is being facilitated by Amanda from KWMC. Vicki said that it is a nice thing to do but that she is yet to see how it affects young people’s access to health and that this is what the project is about. The idea for this project came about because someone suggested that is might be useful to do a poster project, to produce posters that aimed to encourage young people to access health, by working with young people. The project is therefore about finding out about how the young people engaged think about their health and how they might be encouraged to access health. Vicki said that she doesn’t yet know how useful it is going to be but that it is a nice project. However, she added that ‘nice’ isn’t really on the government’s agenda and that to be on an agenda people have to be target driven.
Vicki talked about the idea of texting people with reminders of their appointments, but she said that people tend to change their mobile phone numbers too often for this to be useful, and so she is not convinced that it is a good way to spend time.
She said that she thought some way down the line a lot more probably could happen with digital technology in her working context, but not until such a time as it is secure enough to ensure patient confidentiality. She added that at the moment digital technology doesn’t do anything that would help people to see the doctor any sooner or for any longer.
