GPUK.net Demonstration

Here is a Demonstration/Preview of some of what GPUK.net has to offer.

Following the link takes you to a GPUK.net Demo website which has been set up, just as yours could be, by spending less than five minutes supplying some basic practice information. As soon as the data is submitted, our system creates for you:

1. A website just like you see here.
   
   
2. Fully working systems for online appointments, repeat prescriptions, and new patient registrations. NB these are fully working but are clearly marked as being demos, so that patients do not try to use them before you are ready for them.
   
   
3. Online tools so that you can reconfigure the automatic pages to your taste - change the text, add/remove links, change the backgrounds, colours and logos, etc, without needing any technical knowledge other than being able to make point and click selections with your mouse.
   
   
4. More tools for advanced management of your website for those who want them - uploading and deleting files etc.
   
   

You can view the type of website design that you will have once you sign up. You can try out the appointment system by making a booking, and you can also try out the repeat prescription ordering system. Some of the admin functions on this demo version are available for you to examine - use the Admin Code Name "Fred" and password "aaa" (in each case don't use quotation marks).

You can also make a free personalised site for your practice and use that for your own personal demo. This shows you how the system works. Go to the free signup page, where you will only have to fill in one screen of basic practice information, and it will create for you a website which will include all the standard functions.

About the Appointments/Repeats System.

• Firstly and most importantly there is no security or confidentiality risk to practice patient data.
  
  
• There is no link from this system to the practice system except by email, and even that is secure.
  
  
  • Data submitted by the patient at your website is protected by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology.
    
    
  • Once you have set up your decryption software at the practice (optional, e.g. GnuPG, OpenPGP, or PGP) you can ask us to encrypt emails from our server to your practice.
    
    
• There is no virus risk since the email is a plain text email with no html or attachments.
  
  
• The email is not an ordinary email from a patient who may inadvertently attach a file or send an html or otherwise infected email, it is a system autogenerated plain text email which cannot carry any virus infection.
  
  
• The system does not run on the practice server, it runs on a server outside the practice, and so there is really no risk at all to practice security.
  
  

• No patient data is stored on the system.
  
  
• The patient submits minimal data to enable identification at the practice of the person making the booking or prescription request.
  
  
• This is sent by structured email to the practice, and no data is retained on the system.
  
  

• It is very simple to operate.
  
  
• The practice reserves some appointments from its usual booking system, which may be a paper or a computerised system, and offers them online.
  
  
• Once a day in the morning the practice checks its email and transfers newly received online bookings to the slots already reserved.
  
  
• That's all there is to do!
  
  

It is advisable to also check the email sometime in the afternoon and deal with those so as to lessen the morning workload as there will then be fewer to deal with next morning. Bookings after 6 a.m. (or other time as chosen by you) are usually only offered for the following day or later so there is no need to be constantly checking email all day.

• The practice manager can determine how many or few appointments are reserved at the practice and offered online.
  
  
• Those that are not taken online become available on the day as extra slots for emergency appointments.
  
  
• You can also change your mind about appointments that you have offered online - we provide a facility to withdraw appointments that you have put on the online system e.g. in case of illness or sudden holiday.
  
  
• These management functions are securely password protected to avoid tampering.
  
  

The practice does not need to have it's own website, though it may do so if it wishes, and it does not even need to use any computer in the practice other than a single email machine. We shall also provide for you a website as part of the service, e.g. like this or you may link from your existing website, and more fully featured practice websites are also possible.

This system is beneficial to both patient and practice.

• The patient benefits by being able to browse a selection of appointments, any time day or night, and select and book one to suit their diary.

• The practice may save money and out of hours workload - patients may be happy to book themselves an appointment for the following day, or ask someone else such as the out of hours co-operative to do it for them, and thereby not cost you an out of hours callout.

• The practice also benefits by a lessening of workload on telephone calls at reception - it is a lot less work to simply transfer an email booking to a reserved slot in the surgery appointment system than it is to take phone calls and negotiate to find a slot that suits the patient and their other commitments, and meanwhile the other phones are ringing and there are people waiting at the desk! The only work that is involved, transferring emails to the appointment system, is simpler and can also be done at a time of your choice rather than being controlled by the ringing of the phone.

There are many other features that are not demonstrated here.

• There are facilities to customise many of the onscreen messages.
  
  
• You can choose your own backgrounds, logos, colour scheme and font, and other features.
  
  
• For simplicity the patient booking module is not initially password protected. However if hoax bookings were to become a problem for you then you have the option, in the admin screens, to activate various levels of security.
  
  
  • You may activate a password checking on every booking - you ask patients to register to use the service and then you issue only your own patients with the password.
    
    
  • If it proves that it is one of your own patients using the password to make hoax bookings then another level of security is possible - issue login-name/password combinations which are different for each patient and can only make bookings for that particular patient and their family.
    
    
  • The booking screen already has some error checking of data entered. This could be made more strict such as only accepting phone numbers with dialling codes from your practice area. This will make it more difficult for a bored teenage websurfer from overseas to make hoax bookings!
    
    
• You will be able to customise the text of the emails that are sent to the surgery and to the patient.
  
  
• And more...
  
  

Now go and try out the Demonstration System. And try out a signup for a free test website. Let us know if you feel that it needs more features that we have not mentioned above.