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Veteran broadcaster Alastair Stewart has told GB News that the NHS App is "not fit for purpose", as he expressed his concerns for Labour's reform of the health service.Announcing a new 10-year plan today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared the reforms are "about fairness" for everyone.FULL STORY HERE.
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Now look, you're going to have a lovely app, you can do everything online, as a senior citizen you'll have no problems with the NHS ever again
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Isn't that wonderful? Well it would be if it were true, but as we got used to with this Labour government, if you scratch the surface a little bit
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The assertion that this is a plan for everyone is patently a nonsense, because if like me and the literally, no exaggeration, Nigel
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hundreds of thousands of people like me who have either vascular dementia or Alzheimer's, any form of dementia, and there are several kinds
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the app is simply not fit for purpose. First of all, you have to put in your email address
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Then you have to put in a password. and if you get it slightly wrong and think oh hang on a moment it's not sausages and apples it's
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carrots and cabbages and you want to quickly change it so you can carry on it's terribly
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complicated and if you've got dementia or if you're slightly older but perhaps not with dementia
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or just have a mental issue sometimes you get digital problems you get a letter wrong or a
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number in the wrong place and you cannot get hold of the prescriptions you talk about
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You cannot look at your appointments record. It just inaccessible And as far as the community hubs or as you and I used to call them when we were growing up cottage hospitals almost that great We got a brilliant GP surgery just down the road
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that has nurses, has a brilliant pharmacy, and looks after Sally and me extremely well. So I'm
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really pleased about that. And they're just a terrific team. But my brain consultant and my
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dementia consultant and my cardiologist, because so much of it is about blood pressure
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are both based at the big general hospital. They're not going to duplicate them in our local
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setup, nor should they. So it simply isn't a plan for everyone. Not everyone's got a smartphone
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Not everybody has 24 hour, seven day a week, perfect Wi-Fi and broadband
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That's true. We all know all of those problems and many of your viewers will understand as well
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And when I put the tweet on that you kindly just showed a moment ago, my timeline on Twitter X was awash with people saying, you know, my granny is such and such an aide or my aunt so and so
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And also people who don't particularly like the idea of sharing their email address and their date of birth online with the NHS
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And if you have a problem with the NHS app, there's no one to talk to
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Surprise, surprise. You can't get back in judgment and say it isn't working
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Yeah, I can imagine many people, as you say, tapping in a wrong letter or number on the passcode
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and getting into deep distress. Alistair, thank you for joining us. As articulate and as passionate as ever
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Wonderful
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