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On 18/07/06, Adrian Midgley <amidgley2@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I've seen less conciliatory responses from official systems you know... > > "We are sorry, but the web browser you are using is not compatible with > the online Choose and Book service. > > We apologise unconditionally for any inconvenience caused by this > problem and can assure you that we are working to make sure that future > versions of the Choose and Book online service work in as many types of > browser as possible. > > You can still book over the phone by calling 0845 60 88 8 88 (Textphone: > 0845 8 50 22 50)." My wife used the telephone, it took 30 minutes, it would have been quicker and easier to speak to a receptionist at the relevent hospital. So that's 30 minutes of her valuable time wasted because some half wits can't do their job properly (and that's what this is a case of, it would be trivial to fix, they just can't be bothered). > You might consider responding to it along the lines of being pleased > that they have taken note that not everyone wishes to and some are not > able to use a specific browser, that they have declared their intention > to extend it etc, and with the suggestion that one of the relatively > early ones to work out should be Firefox on Linux since a solution to > that will probably carry over to Firefox on Windows, and to the two main > browsers on the Macintosh, and may even turn out to work in Lynx when > that is used as the basis for screen-readers etc for the partially sighted. You see we have this same problem with Cornwall County Council - any interactive part of their website - like applying for jobs - requires IE, of course they claim that it will be cross-browser some time soon but nothing has happened for 3 or 4 years! Given the track record of C&B I don't see this getting fixed any time soon either. Of course it's still a stupid solution to a problem that didn't exist - why would a patient know which consultant at what hospital they want - the GP should either know or be able to find out the most appropriate place and person to refer to. Having misinformed patients who've spent a few minutes googling on the internet for something they frequently don't understand making those decisions is dumb, and even if the patient is knowledgable it would still be far better to discuss it with the GP. The only time we've needed to see a specific consultant the new system wouldn't have been any help, and we ended up hugely out of pocket with travel and accomodation expenses for half a dozen trips to london for consultations, surgery and follow ups. Now that would be useful having your at least some of the costs of travelling to the only place that does a specific operation reimbursed. It's crazy that if you live in london you don't have to spend a fortune in travel etc because you have all the top specialist hospitals on your doorstep. Treliske is pretty good at most things and has some very good specialist consultants, but Moorfields it's not (thankfully it has much better nurses, and isn't a depressing and dingy 60s concrete bunker with victorian wards where outpatients are herded like cattle through rushed assesments and blood tests). Cheers, A. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html