MyCareView – a “win-win” for patients and professionals
Over the years, I’ve become very familiar with healthcare in Cheshire.
As someone that has had elective surgery several times for wide ranging issues including my eyes, hands and prostate; I’ve seen many consultants in hospitals across the area, and have had more follow-up consultations and GP appointments than I care to mention!
In later years, I have unfortunately also developed Type 2 Diabetes. Through the support of my family and the medical and care professionals I work with, I’m still able to live a full and happy life. But successfully managing my condition consists of taking six tablets every day, having an annual check and blood tests with a diabetic nurse at my surgery, and having an Annual Eye check through Retinal Screening. As the condition has also affected my walking, I also have Disabled Parking Badge.
I’m very grateful to the fantastic care professionals who have helped me manage my condition and who have been so helpful through my elective surgery.
It’s fair to say that without them, my quality of life would be much more reduced from what it is now.
A complex system
However, with many different healthcare professionals, comes many different providers. And with different providers comes different data-sets and IT systems.
These can make navigating an already complex system confusing for patients, and potentially frustrating for professionals.
Take my situation:
Over the course of the last few years, I’ve received care from Warrington, Wythenshawe, Leighton, Manchester and Stockport. I also receive my disabled parking badge from Cheshire East Council.
For my retinal scans, I visit an Optometrist who does the scans and then sends the results to central screening for digital retina in Sandbach. Blood samples are given at the Community Hospital and sent to Leighton Hospital in Crewe for analysis; and then also sent to my GP for comment. A diabetic nurse undertakes an annual physical check of my feet and discusses the results following the blood results and if needed a referral – also to my GP.
This results in the involvement of at least three different organisations, using different communications methods (often involving postal letters which can cause delays) and data-sets; just for the management of my Type 2 Diabetes.
This, at times, does feel un-necessarily fragmented. And I can understand how healthcare professionals could find this overly complicated and prone to the occasional error.
How MyCareView will help me
The establishment of a simple central portal for all my Health and Wellbeing which I can contribute to and control accordingly through MyCareView will help this situation hugely.
The ability for all of the people who care for me to see close-to-real-time updates on my condition will also reduce delays and duplication in the system.
In addition, the ability to share my details with others that I choose to be involved in my care, will be a huge benefit both now and in the future.
Taking the worry out of receiving care – wherever I am
As I use a range of healthcare providers across the region, the MyCareView Patient Portal will help my important health and care data to be portable and useable wherever I am. Because I travel abroad regularly and often need medical assistance involving visiting a doctor or hospital, this will take a lot of the worry out of receiving care wherever I happen to be.
As these visits to healthcare providers in other countries can involve procedures and elective surgery which are not recorded on my UK-based health care record, the ability to add these in myself and these then being seen when I’m home will be win-win for both me and those caring for me.
Control, convenience and confidence
Though it’s early days, and many of the ambitions for MyCareView will only be realised after some time; I believe it represents a brilliant opportunity for people across Cheshire east, no matter their situation, to enjoy far more control, convenience and confidence in how they manage their health and wellbeing.
It’s a very exciting development that I’m sure many thousands of people in Cheshire East will benefit from.