Will We Soon be Booking Doctor Appointments and Accessing Medical Records Online?

The Coalition government has today unveiled plans for patients that allow them to book appointments with their GPs online, as well as check test results on the Internet too. Apps for smartphones are to be developed and patients will have access to all their medical records online as well. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said these plans will give patients more power.

Personally, I welcome this move because I tend to use technology every day. I use a smartphone and actually prefer to have most aspects of my life online, from banking to shopping. This move would really hone in the advances in technology and would allow the NHS to become a more accessible part of people’s lives.

I understand the dilemma a lot of patients face on a Monday morning when they have to book an appointment with their GP, often having to spend a considerable amount of time on the telephone trying to get in to see their doctor. In many cases, when individuals do finally get through they are offered an appointment much later in the week, or in some dire cases the following week. My elderly grandmother faces this dilemma each time she has to book an appointment, and to be honest it really isn’t fair. Much like it isn’t fair for people with children to spend so much time out of their day telephoning their local surgery when they really need to be doing much more important things in their lives. In that respect, you’d think that most people would welcome this plan, wouldn’t you?

There are critics of these new plans for the NHS. As ever, we need to look at the positives and negatives of the changes. We might be keen to see the NHS adapt to the 21st century advances in technology, but many patients may not be ready to put their phone down and pick up a laptop. A lot of elderly patients will feel left behind, out of the loop and quite frankly angered by the new plans. In the technologically advanced generation we find ourselves in, are our older generations being left out or should they in fact embrace any future advances in technology?

The government needs to tread carefully when these plans are turned into reality so that users who don’t have Internet access or don’t use smartphones are included and can still easily access their local NHS branches.

It’s not only about being able to book appointments online. Patients will eventually have access to their medical records online, as well as test results being made available online too. This will raise questions about the issue of security for the proposed plans. Is allowing patients’ medical records to be accessed online a good thing, or will it be only a matter of time before hackers make their own plans to sabotage this information?

However, the government plan to enhance the system of booking appointments, they obviously need to take into account people’s views on security and sensitivity about their private information online.

But, to the vast majority of Internet users, who use online banking and enter their bank details online on a daily basis, is it any different accessing your medical records online and having test results sent through cyberspace?

Microsoft Gets Motorola Android Phones Banned in USA

The International Trade Commission has ruled that Motorola’s Android devices are banned from the USA until the mobile company agrees patent infringement with Microsoft.

There’s something of an industry joke that Microsoft earns more money from Android than it does Windows Phone – and, indeed, more than Google earns from Android. Almost all of the Android OEMs have agreed a settlement with Microsoft whereby they pay a royalty fee for each handset sold, but Motorola has refused to do so. The end result was a patent infringement claim by Microsoft that has resulted in Motorola’s Android devices being banned. What’s particularly intriguing about this is that the Droid series has been successful in America, combining a marketable name (Droid) with a range of devices that made it a good comeback for Motorola.

A few short years ago Motorola had all but slipped into obscurity, so the Android lifeline it received it will no doubt want to keep. That leaves it with two choices: amend the software so it no longer uses Microsoft’s patents, or pay to licence it from Microsoft to keep selling the phones as they are.

The ITC ruled that the Motorola Atrix, Xoom and Droid infringed a Microsoft patent relating to Exchange ActiveSync technology, and the order prohibits “the unlicensed entry for consumption of mobile devices, associated software and components thereof covered by claims 1, 2, 5, or 6 of the United States Patent No. 6,370,566 and that are manufactured abroad by or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of, Motorola”. So while the devices themselves have not received banishment, the ruling places into effect a ban on the devices until amendments to the software or an agreement with Microsoft is made.

With Barnes & Noble recently settling with Microsoft for its Android-powered Nook, Motorola is the only major Android maker without a patent licensing deal with Microsoft, and Microsoft itself estimates that its licenses cover more than 70% of all Android devices (phones and tablets) in the USA.

Despite the ruling, Motorola doesn’t seem too concerned, as Jennifer Erickson, a spokesperson for the company, has said that “Although we are disappointed by the Commission’s ruling…Motorola Mobility will not experience any impact in the near term, as the Commission’s ruling is subject to a $0.33/per unit bond during the 60 day Presidential review period.” What this means is that the ruling is not yet final, President Obama has to review it within 60 days who can, if he so chooses, overturn it on the grounds of public policy. Beyond that, Motorola has said it is considering appealing.

While this battle may go on a little longer, it isn’t one-sided when it comes to the two tech giants. Another ITC judge ruled in favour of Motorola in another case, that Microsoft is infringing four of Motorola’s patents. The result of that was a ban on Windows 7 PCs and the Xbox 360 gaming console in Germany. Predictably, Microsoft is appealing the decision.

News in Briefs 21/05/12

At the time of writing, Chelsea have just won the European Championship for the first time in their history and their ultimate goal of buying every major club trophy has come to fruition. Obviously, its sport that’s dominated the latter end of the week, but Greece decided to pop up yet again and ruin everybody’s economic recovery.

Political Oops of the Week

My political oops of the week may actually be a tad controversial as I’m choosing the G8 commitment to keeping Greece in the Euro and promoting growth. Let’s look at what they are trying to do. They have a country on its knees without a stable government and they want to pump more and more money into it in order to promote growth and help it recover.

Now, this is just looking at the problem on paper. On paper the solution works and everything should be fine and dandy, however it doesn’t work like this. We live in a world of capitalism, and capitalism can only grow if private investors invest in that country. What moron is going to invest in Greece? Nobody will trust that country at all as it has no growth prospects and nobody is attempting to take the first move.

Pump
Keep pumping, maybe one day it'll work.

Politicians can spill their silly words as much as they like, but no investor with any ounce of success will buy into it. Eventually, this is going to collapse like a pack of cards. There can be no recovery without a reset button. It would be best to let them collapse and then use the money we would have used pumping cash into a pointless cause to save Europe and limit the collapse. But they won’t do that. Within a few years we are going to be on our knees with the rest of Europe, and there will be a lot of violence.

The Painful…

Will Smith was in the news this week as his Men in Black 3 premier in Russia turned violent when a reporter attempted to kiss him on the lips. He didn’t take too kind of this so a swift backhanded slap ended the reporter’s crusade to kiss a black, American film star. But the shocking thing was that Will Smith actually apologised in his next interview, which is kind of strange since he was the victim here. If a random guy tries to kiss you on the lips then you punch him in the face immediately.

TMZ.com reported that this wasn’t an incident which is out of the ordinary for the Ukrainian reporter in question, though, as he apparently makes his name by attempting to kiss unsuspecting celebrities.

Will Smith slap

…And the Pointless

Do you remember those times where we see someone from reality TV, especially Big Brother, and you are internally screaming “Please, for the love of humanity, please just die.”? I do, in fact that’s why I stopped watching that sort of stuff as it makes me go a little crazy, but the medication does help. Jade Goody was famous for passing on when she was under 30, and it surely wasn’t going to be the last victim of an early death if we look at the lifestyles some of these celebrities lead today.

It happened again quite recently actually as a Big Brother star from series 10 died. Sophia Brown, a Lupus sufferer (for those who don’t know, it’s an ulcerative skin disease), has reportedly passed away at the age of 30 (yes, another one who couldn’t make it over 30). As of this writing, the cause of death was unknown. However, the way I see it is that it’s just removing a small skid mark from the underwear of the world, and yet it’s received massive coverage over multiple news websites. It’s quite amazing how someone so irrelevant can gain more coverage than a heroic individual saving someone from a burning building, for example.

 

The so Outrageous that it’s Borderline Hilarious

Some things are just not supposed to appear in a meal. These things are known as meal breakers. Lately, a hash brown from McDonalds had a deep friend giant insect baked into it, but 14-year-old Ryan Hart had a meal breaker of his own as he found part of a human finger in his meal. The Arby’s restaurant in Michigan admitted that the finger had most likely come from a worker who had injured themselves and then left the area. Although, it does confuse me exactly how no worker noticed that somebody had just chopped their finger off in the first place. Still, if they did then we wouldn’t be able to see one of these meal breakers in action.

McDonalds grill
How in the blue hell did nobody notice that?

A Positive Outlook for the Week

I’ll be honest, this is going to be a terrible week for me. Firstly, people are still going to be worrying about the Eurozone, and then handling it badly. But at the same time I’m going to have to watch a load of utter tosh about the Olympic Relay. Yes, we get it, the torch is going around a large part of the country. It doesn’t need a news bulletin every few hours, seriously. Oh and the Jubilee again. 60 years of sitting on one’s behind, waving, and pretending to care about poor people through a charity doesn’t warrant millions and millions of pounds for a celebration.

So next week will be as bleak and irritating after all…

Student Loan Debt, Insert Sarcastic Slow Clap Here

We all remember the student protests and everything else that came with the government’s decision to boost tuition fees up to £9,000 a year. And the Liberal Democrats are paying for most of it. But there was something that was forgotten in the debate over education: the government promised that these additional costs to the state would peak at about £50bn in 2030.

Student protests

Well that may have been a little bit of a miscalculation/error/blatant lie as a new study by Andrew McGettigan, for the Intergenerational Foundation, has revealed that it could be around the £100bn mark instead. And he did this by measuring the potential impact of allowing students to pay back only if they are earning at least £21,000 a year.

If this is true – which at the moment it looks like it’s turning out to be – then we can easily see why. Let’s look at why there are so many people going to university in the first place. This originally started a few years ago when the Labour Party thought it would be a good idea to get around 50% of all British teenagers into university. So they did that. But when the economic situation deteriorated they realised that allowing so many students to enter university at £3,000 a year wasn’t really that sustainable anymore as universities generally can’t afford to take on that many students at that level whilst sustaining themselves.

So the latest government took a little bit of a u-turn and decided to let universities charge up to £9,000 a year; with only a few universities with special consideration being allowed to charge the full price. So what happened? Inevitably, the main universities charged the full amount, but then everybody decided to follow and “special consideration” seemed to melt away like recent voter turnouts. Ok, that didn’t go to plan. That then led to a 9% reduction in the number of people applying to university on the next application cycle.

But the problem is they have also raised the level at which students have to start paying back their £9,000 a year student loan, to £21,000. This would be fine if economic times were great and people were riding to work on golden horses, but that’s not the case. So now the government is lending out £9,000 a year to students who won’t be able to ever pay back that loan.

Let’s look at the facts. £9,000 a year + maintenance loans for many = £27,000 minimum for the minority of students who didn’t need maintenance loans. Students need to have a job paying £21,000 a year in order to start paying back their student loan. Now take a look at the starter jobs these days. Those jobs are offering salaries of between £16,000 and £18,000, most of the time. So the student would have to remain in that job for quite a few years before hitting that £21,000 threshold.

The government now has to wait for their loan.

Another problem, though, is that many students have been misled. They are taking degrees that are completely worthless. And, yes, media studies is a worthless degree, and no I don’t care about which teacher made themselves a success from it, they are in the tiny minority. Those degrees won’t get them jobs. And that’s not all, even those students who are doing a degree that happens to be worth a damn have been misled as they believe that a degree warrants them a job. This means they will have absolutely zero experience as they are thinking that they are going to swagger in the door and kick that poor uneducated, working class buffoon out.

I read a BBC report last year that talked about how many employers find that graduates are not ready for the real world of work and can’t even do basic things. That sort of thing is rife, and it’s precisely why many graduates are out of work. Employers are rarely interested in students with a degree and little experience. A degree is a piece of paper, and not a lot else.

The unemployment rate for young people in this country is disgraceful, and many of them are graduates. So how does the government think it’s going to get its money back anytime soon? The economic crisis isn’t going to fix itself, and developments in the Eurozone only look to be making things worse.  The answer is that the government won’t be getting its money back at all. Instead, the burden will be shifted back to the public, so now you’ve just increased the deficit due to your pathetic handling of the student loan situation.

It makes me wonder why they just didn’t keep university funding up and then leave the fees alone instead. Or, alternatively, they could have just stopped promoting the idea that every teenager should go to university. That’s nothing but a blind effort to get these young people off of the unemployment figures. The lower the figures the better the political situation for the government. You have to pity the saps who fell for it, though, don’t you?

 

What do you think about the current situation with university education, and how do you think they should have gone about it?

A Measure of Confusion

The increasing panic to get the UK – or at the very least London – looking spruced and respectable in time for the Olympics has shown itself in the somewhat unexpected form of Lord Howe of Aberavon (former Foreign Secretary under our own rust-topped Iron Lady of the 80s, Maggie Thatcher), as he demanded that the UK stop “dithering” and make the full switch from the imperial to the metric system of measurement before our Continental guests come over and laugh at us.

In a rant worthy of Enoch Powell (well, almost), Lord Howe claimed that the UK’s reluctance to pick one system over the other and stick to it “increases cost, confuses shoppers, leads to serious misunderstandings, causes accidents, confuses our children’s education and, quite bluntly, puts us all to shame.”

Aside from the laughable irony of a Lord calling for Britain to cast off the shackles of the Empire, I think that perhaps Howe is overreacting. I grew up with both systems and, whilst I couldn’t immediately tell you how many gallons to the litre (or even how many pints to the gallon, if I’m honest), I know well enough the measurements I need to use regularly and I can look up the ones I don’t (mille grazie, Google). Metric has been gradually replacing Imperial without children coming home from school in floods of tears, and presumably it will continue to do so until we’re all working exclusively in units of ten. If things have been happening organically and with minimal trauma, why try to push through a change now?

As a member of Howe’s “rudderless and bewildered majority”, floundering helplessly in a sea of grams and ounces, I would also call into question the wisdom of attempting to rush such a huge change through in time for the Olympics – if this were to happen, I imagine that foreign visitors really would see a lot of confused and befuddled Brits. Personally, the uncertainty over whether London’s transport network will be able to cope with the massive influx of humans is more than enough to be worrying about at this late stage (particularly if you’re a regular commuter into the capital). Add to that the allegation that someone recently challenged the security of the Olympic site by smuggling a fake bomb in, and I doubt that complaints over the serving of pints vs half-litres will even make the Oddly Enough column. It’s too big an undertaking to attempt in too little time. It’d be like deciding to repaint the kitchen an hour before the dinner-party.

Home Office minister Lord Henley, who was involved in the recent debate over the use of these two systems, was quoted as saying that he wasn’t convinced that the British public saw any real need to change the status quo. I would go further and suggest that the British public doesn’t even care.

The image of an esteemed Life Peer and experienced politician worrying that smug visitors from the mainland will be wandering around London this summer, discussing the failings of our measurement system in hushed tones behind cupped hands, is bizarre and ridiculous. Moreover, Howe’s assertion that our dual system will confuse visitors is nothing short of offensive.

Perhaps Lord Howe’s zeal is fuelled solely by a selfless desire to help strangers; more likely, though, his national pride is the driving force (another spot of irony, there).

Or maybe he just objects on aesthetic grounds to those rulers that have inches up one edge and centimetres down the other.