Swine flu in Mexico – it’s as if a vengeful God has opted to finish off humanity by pandemic while it’s reeling from the effects of global recession. This strain of swine flu seems to be transmitted by human not just animal contact and affects the relatively young and healthy not just those with weakened immune systems. All the Mexican authorities can do is distribute breathing masks, close schools, cafes and restaurants and cancel public gatherings.
It must be a terrible time to have hay fever in Mexico City. Are snuffling noses and sore throats deadly symptoms or just pollen overload? It’s hard to know. Going out means courting infection – and the thousands of Mexicans piling into hospital accident and emergency departments are the most likely to develop swine flu, whether they arrived with it or not.
The best way to deal with this national emergency is not possible in Mexico. Nor would it be possible in the UK. We too would be forced to charge into surgeries and hospitals, stand in bus queues, walk to work wearing our hopeful, fragile little face masks. We too would demand face to face diagnosis of our condition. And we too would risk infecting ourselves and others to get it.
Because Britain, like Mexico, is not a digital society.
If it was, we would have 100% access to superfast broadband of 20 megabits per second, take-up levels of more than 80% across all sections of society, and public services only available online because of their ease, accuracy and efficiency. We’d spend more on frontline salaries and less on administering queues. We’d see the vulnerable few able to overtake the worried many in the bid for hands-on care. We’d empower citizens to monitor and manage their own chronic conditions. And as a result, in an emergency or pandemic, we’d have relatively rational citizens so accustomed to virtually managed healthcare that a panicked stampede to A&E might not be their automatic response.
Everyday e-healthcare could start tomorrow. To read more - click here....
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