EDITORIAL - NOVEMBER 1999
28/11/99
It's a year since my last editorial. (Pressure of work!) The website has not changed dramatically since then although we have added a section listing Healthcall's pre-recorded helpline numbers which is very popular. Very recently we have added a search facility and also a repeat prescription order form. Also, whereas a year ago we were getting less than 20 hits a week, in one week this month we got over a thousand hits from just under five hundred users! Of course most of these are not our patients and many are from institutions such as Universities and the domains are truly worldwide including Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Israel, the USA and several countries in Europe. We get a regular breakdown of which pages are most popular and these are some of our own Health Tips, our Links Section and the Healthcall numbers I've just referred to.
One area of slight disappointment is the relative lack of feedback so far although this has recently picked up a bit. Many visitors to the site go directly to the page that they are looking for as these now have found their way onto the search engines. Less than 10% come through the "front door", i.e. the Home Page (put that link there just in case you're one of them!) Of course not all pages have email links to us. The survey form has encouraged some feedback and there have been useful suggestions including an index of local resources and a bulletin board. The former is a little problematic as it might imply that we preferred listed services over non listed ones and also putting telephone numbers on the internet could generate problems for some people - relatively few local facilities seem to be on-line so far. Within the next year to eighteen months there will be a big expansion of on-line information as both Darlington PCG and County Durham Health Authority implement what is being called the Health Information Zone which as well as providing information for professionals on the NHS's own network will put extensive information for patients on the public internet which will complement what is on this site and to which (and from which) this site will have links.
Taking the second point about the Bulletin Board. Well we do have a "patient's section" which has not really been used. I am renaming it the Soapbox in order to encourage more people to use it - just send an email to FEEDBACK@whinfield.co.uk with your views and put "(soapbox)" somewhere in the body of the message. We will publish these contributions provided that they don't offend taste and are not personally abusive! We will also append your email address (but not your name) unless you ask us not too - in which case we will use your initials. Get typing your views on us, on the NHS and on health issues in general.
Developments in the offing. I am currently developing some pages on early warning signs of serious disease which hopefully will be ready in a few weeks.
Robert Upshall.