Absolute Gadget - Book a doctor's appointment through your telly

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Book a doctor's appointment through your telly

Written by Simon Toat
Monday, 23 July 2007
If you are a bit of couch potato and you feel a twinge in the chest but you really don't want to miss Neighbours then the NHS has come up with a way that allows fatties and other lazy people to book a doctor's appointment through the telly. Over 1,100 surgeries can now offer patients the ability to book, amend and cancel GP appointments via digital interactive TV and mobile. The Looking Local scheme was first trialled in South Yorkshire, Stoke and Reading and Wrexham and research found that the number of missed appointments decreased. Basically patients can now see their GP's appointment diary and book a visit to the quack without having to speak to a frosty receptionist. The scheme is now going nationwide. "This is a significant milestone for GPs, practice staff and patients. The technology is now in place to offer this free service to a far bigger audience using a range of technical platforms," Sean Riddell, Healthcare Managing Director of EMIS, the company behind the project. The Looking Local service is provided by DigiTV on Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview and mobile phones. It is hoped the new scheme will take pressure off surgeries. EMIS hopes to put repeat prescriptions on the service in future. The service also offers users the chance to look for jobs and find out bus and train times. It sounds brilliant, although we don't think that using a screen and a keyboard to look up information held on computers elsewhere will ever catch on. I mean an interconnected network of computers - nah mate it's just a pipedream!

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