A significant increase in the use of technology to help people to manage their own health and care
An NHS for everyone regardless of income, gender, location, age, ethnicity or any other characteristic
National Health Service commitments
Digital literacy & health inequalities
• Those who are least likely to be online are those who most need health services
• Information & services are increasingly digital - digital skills are increasingly essential to health literacy
• Low health literacy closely linked to poorer health outcomes & mortality
Bostock,s & Steptoe, Association between low functional health literacy & mortality in older adults. British Medical Journal 2012; 344
Central to NHS Planning Guidance
Everyone Counts recognises that Widening Digital Participation is central to the delivery of Delivering better care through the digital revolution: “We are committed to ensuring that nobody is left behind as we give citizens and patients greater control. For this reason, we have launched a major health literacy programme with the Tinder Foundation, which will help 100,000 people each year learn how to use the internet for health benefit” (para 25)
Digital literacy supports wider agendas • Digital technology & information (using NHS Choices & Patient Online
GP transactions)• Participation (providing online feedback, and to participate actively in
their own care)• Transparency (understanding and making use of data about the quality
of services)• Reducing health inequalities (ensuring that the most vulnerable in
society get better care & better services)• Wider primary care (getting online to use innovative methods of access
to primary care eg online consultations)• Access to high quality urgent & emergency care (getting online to use
multi-channel services including digital NHS111)• Integrated care (people with multiple and long term conditions getting
online to access the full range of support, from NHS, social care and voluntary sector)
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