I was very pleased to have been invited to take part in the Buckinghamshire Council Roundtable discussion regarding Digital Exclusion across Buckinghamshire.
Buckinghamshire Council are keen to ensure the citizens of Buckinghamshire are not left behind digitally, and ultimately excluded from necessary services. As Hanley Consulting’s Primary Care digital assistant, EDATT is in 7 of the 11 PCN’s across Buckinghamshire we were able to bring the health aspect to the Digital Exclusion discussion.
We discussed the main themes contributing to digital exclusion; cost of broadband and data, access to devices (I did learn about services in Bucks that do offer support for residents from, providing white goods, support with rent to laptops & tablets and on line courses). We also recognised the impact of the cost of living crisis, physical and mental health disabilities and the general lack of confidence with going on line, data security and scams.
Ellyn Gattlin and I had the pleasure of sharing how EDATT is supporting patients to access health and care digitally. Using embedded WCAG compliant guides within the EDATT conversational Chatbot, patients can register with a GP Practice, learn how to download and use the NHS App and other digital tools all to improve their health and care journey and even self refer to some health and community services. I do appreciate these are people that have access to devices and data. But that is what made it so important to be there!
Hearing from the charities that were also invited to the review meeting Connection Support, Age UK Buckinghamshire, Enrych and Talkback UK was enlightening and I hope to catch up with them all again soon to see where our organisations can make a difference and reduce the number of digitally excluded citizens across Buckinghamshire.
