NHS online access set to be increased

Over 300 UK online centres are set to be used by the NHS in order to increase usage and boost understanding of the service’s websites.

Dubbed a network of NHS Choices Community Champions, the new initiative hopes to reach more than 150,000 people during the next 12 months.

The main aim of the new scheme – which is a collaboration between the NHS Choices website and UK online centres – is to support people who do not have IT available to them, allowing them the chance to gain access to the aforementioned site.

Helen Milner, managing director of UK online centres, said her organisation targets “the web-phobic or dismissive – and [has] already helped millions of digitally-excluded people find out what they could do on the internet”.

She also suggested that over a third of the UK’s adult population are not utilising online resources and are missing out on a wide selection of public information as a result.

Beverley Bryant, programme director of NHS Choices, added that the new arrangement will ultimately help “improve the health” of those most in need.

NHS Choices was launched in June 2007 with the aim of personalising healthcare and providing information that gives patients the opportunity to choose when and where they receive treatment.