News & Events > Using electronic media

This one day conference from Charity Comms is aimed at the voluntary sector and explores cost effective ways of getting your message across to your users. Learn how to make digital communications work for your charity - whether you're starting to think about using social media or want to improve your current digital strategy, you'll leave with practical advice guaranteed to radically improve your digital communications on a budget. The conference takes place on October 13th in London.

This is an opportunity to hear from Professor Bachman, a world expert in the use of the internet in consultations with patients. The workshop will cover practical ways that the efficiency of care can be improved and will explore how this can be achieved in today's world of busy medical practice. Sessions include those on computer use by patients and it's impact on the provision of healthcare and medicine, the internet, and the empowered patient. The event takes place in London on September 21 2010.

NHS Choices and NHS Lincolnshire have launched a mobile texting service to deliver instant information on waiting times in A&E departments and a tool about getting the right treatment in the right place. The free mobile service means users who send a text message to a dedicated number containing the word WAITING will receive the latest waiting times at A&E departments in three local hospitals and the walk-in centre. The desktop widget, created by NHS Lincolnshire and NHS Choices, provides guidance about getting the right treatment in the Lincolnshire area depending on the health concern and also displays real-time waiting times in the same way as the text service. NHS Lincolnshire said it was the first tool of its kind in the UK. The widget can be downloaded from the hospital website www.ulh.nhs.uk and the PCT's website.

The new Health in Wales bilingual website provides a single point of access for those seeking information about the health of the people of Wales and information about the health and social care services provided by NHS Wales. www.wales.nhs.uk is designed to complement NHS Direct Wales, which provides information for individuals and their dependents on personal health and heath service needs.

The NHS spends up to £86m a year on thousands of websites that are difficult to find, confusing for patients and which do not meet their needs, according to research commissioned for a Department of Health report (which was leaked to Health Service Journal). Researchers found that NHS Choices and NHS Direct were often competing for attention and also concluded that GP practices websites were also the weakest of the health service's online offerings.