Advice for the laity

Yesterday a letter from my doctor’s practice arrived asking me to telephone them to confirm or cancel an appointment for tomorrow. I tried to ring them but the practice was closed for staff-training. So this morning, I grabbed the phone as soon as they reopened, and found myself sixth in the queue. It took over an hour to get through. Why had they not emailed, I asked. They had, they said. I had received nothing from them, so I asked them to check whether they had the right email address. Just one character was wrong. I wonder how long ago that error has stood. I deduced that somebody must have copied the address by reading the screen and then had mistyped it at the keyboard. This is a common source of errors; it is far better to select text with the mouse and copy it to the clipboard. Another simple piece of advice that I like to quote is always to use ASCII text for keeping records, never formatted text. That keeps the information portable to other platforms and easy to edit. The trouble is that this advice is usually met with blank incomprehension. The word text means MS Word to most secretaries.

What other simple advice would you recommend for the technologically handicapped?

One tip I’d give Gavin is to go into your email settings and uncheck the auto-download of images option- only click on links or download pictures if you recognise the source. Never click on links from unsolicited emails; treat email as if guarding a strategically important asset during a war.

Trojan horses are what the enemy and criminals use, and these may seen as harmless images and links. Criminals are known to mask their intentions as friendly email reminders or something you’ve won, to things that appear to be from your bank or some other goods or service provider offering you something appealing. If you are unsure, don’t open it!

Suppose the unsolicited email is from a friend or supposedly from a trusted source. If in doubt, call them directly! With the details you already have for them, not those from the email or links therein.

Very sensible. I think that a lot of people are at a disadvantage because they have no idea of where the data is that they are looking at. If it is a dynamically created webpage it may not be anywhere, of course. But the most popular systems do not help when it comes to having a useful mental picture of what is going on.

I think that a lot of people are at a disadvantage because they have no idea of where the data is that they are looking at

With respect to IT I think you could shorten that sentence and stop after “…no idea”

How often do you see sites where a simple viewing is asking you to log in and verify with Google/Facebook/etc ?
9000+ users at my place of work and, thank deity of choice, most of them don’t use the remote access or remote mail facilities.
The ones that do, drive the support desk to distraction when trying to use the MS two-factor auth.

BTW. Your GP surgery sounds like it’s run by one of the private groups. Ask the staff why they closed on the 21st short of staff/ or training.

My GP practice, when I moved in very early 2020, used my contact info to email me and phoned the following day to ask if I had received the email.
Wonderful data handshake on that. Confirmation that both the email and phone were good.

My local practice posted the following: “With immediate effect same day appointments cannot be requested at the front desk. Patients requesting a same day appointment at the front desk will be turned away and asked to phone in.” Last time I tried to phone in, I ended up number 23 in a queue, and the call was automatically dropped after ten minutes of holding. As they will only accept phone calls for appointments at 8:30am or 2pm, it’s no surprise that A&E get the patients instead.
They do have a email address, very discretely tucked away in the small print of the contact page of the website. They have Systmonline for booking appointments, but only for flu jabs.
I’d hate to be unwell…

What happens to their deaf patients, I wonder? My sister has terrible trouble with getting access to services.

A&E get the patients instead.

Locally: Ambulance deliveries only for A&E, Minor Injuries deals with the walking wounded.

Ha ha! Here minor injuries unit is by appointment. Not in evenings or weekends. If staffed. Contrary to promises made when closing local cottage hospital.

I had my appointment, no problem. When I recounted to the nurse taking my blood sample my conclusions about why there had been a typo in their copy of my email address, she said that they had been told not to use the select and copy-to-clipboard method. I can see that if a text contains invisible characters there could be a security issue, but even so, I was left wondering about the quality of the technical advice given to medical staff.

I was left wondering about the quality of the technical advice given to medical staff.

I sometimes wonder about the “experts” within my place of employment that have a different view than me on items that fall within my sphere.
I assume that they have cousins who “know all about” the other fields of knowledge and are suitably irritating to other people.

I can see that if a text contains invisible characters there could be a security issue

I’d imagine it’s that the clipboard doesn’t clear itself and they might leave something in there, on an unlocked, unattended system…

I’d imagine it’s that the clipboard doesn’t clear itself and they might leave something in there, on an unlocked, unattended system

Our systems are set to screen lock, the time period is seen as annoyingly short in the view of some clinical staff.
That said, we’re regarded as paranoid by some IT staff in neighbouring Trusts.

I never assume all best practices are followed, but those that get spooked by virtually non-existent issue are a world unto themselves, and how we, as a society, end up with badly thought out and unworkable “plans”.

You can arrange to send Txt msgs to 999 – but it has to be set up for your phone in advance.

Pfft, I’m sticking with 0118 999 881 999 119 7253

To send Txt msgs by someone who was deaf?

No, it’s a joke from the IT Crowd.