Discrimination against older women

I have been saying this for a number of years! Both my parents died some time ago but I know for a fact that they never would have coped with online prescription requests, GP appointment booking, health questionnaires etc and Dad would never have complied with a telephone consultation- he was quite hard of hearing and struggled with the telephone at the best of times let alone when he was unwell!

Contactless payments are another problem for some too……..if you have no smart phone how do you purchase something if the seller doesn’t handle cash??? Answer………you can’t and that’s discrimination in itself!

I know countless people in my social network who do not have a computer, tablet or smartphone and they are forever disadvantaged because of it.

It is a bleak report isn't it? I hadn't really thought about the barriers to using online services. There is no other way of booking at ours unless you turn up in person and stare at the admin staff through the glass (they ignore you)

I had to call the DWP yesterday and I was on hold for an hour before I spoke to an actual person who could not hear me!

Whilst the percentages for women are higher, a lot of men in the age groups are similarly disadvantaged with online access and in my experience are less likely to ask for help

The move to parking APPS only accessible with smart phones is also discriminating against older people too . It’s very difficult for the very elderly- I just about keep up at 75 !

Astitchintime

I have been saying this for a number of years! Both my parents died some time ago but I know for a fact that they never would have coped with online prescription requests, GP appointment booking, health questionnaires etc and Dad would never have complied with a telephone consultation- he was quite hard of hearing and struggled with the telephone at the best of times let alone when he was unwell!

Contactless payments are another problem for some too……..if you have no smart phone how do you purchase something if the seller doesn’t handle cash??? Answer………you can’t and that’s discrimination in itself!

I know countless people in my social network who do not have a computer, tablet or smartphone and they are forever disadvantaged because of it.

It seems to me that you equate being elderly or old with being mentally deficient!

Life is full of changes and always has been. Not all changes are good, but they are here to stay.

Most of us manage to move with the times to the extent of dealing with the things that affect us in everyday life. It is for instance easier to use contactless pay than the "old" way when you had to remember your PIN and type it in, if you wanted to pay using a bank card.

Obviously, someone who is hard of hearing cannot manage a telephone consultation, but his GP would be the first to know and acknowledge this, so there must be some way round the problem.

Of course, we can all sit back and say "I won't" use an app, contactless pay, order goods online , use a computer etc. etc. but I have no intention of behaving like a two year old in a tantrum.

Thank you AuntieE. I am 72 and don’t feel at all left out by the way life is changing in all sorts of ways. As you point out, things change! Where on earth would we be if they didn’t?

Just saying - in my WI there are 50 ladies ranging from 40s to 99. There is just one lady - in her 70s - who flatly refuses to engage with technology. The 99 year old is perfectly competent with IT and happily sends out emails.

So it could be attitude not age.

Ladyleftfieldlover

Thank you AuntieE. I am 72 and don’t feel at all left out by the way life is changing in all sorts of ways. As you point out, things change! Where on earth would we be if they didn’t?

Just saying - in my WI there are 50 ladies ranging from 40s to 99. There is just one lady - in her 70s - who flatly refuses to engage with technology. The 99 year old is perfectly competent with IT and happily sends out emails.

So it could be attitude not age.

I agree, in many instances it's attitude. I can do most anything, if I try. However, I don't run long distances now, wonky knees.

I think you could be right about attitude Ladyleftfieldlover.

We've heard about all these older people who don't have access/smart phones etc for about 30 years now. Which means those that are in their 70's 80's and 90's now have had plenty of time to acclimitise to even just the basics of the digital age.

The internet and smart devices have been around for some time now. My Dad died 9 years ago at 94 years of age. He did all his banking online, paid bills and played virtual poker in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep!

I'm in my early 70's and used IT at work for years before I retired - that must be the same for many, many people.

If we didn't move with the times and encourage those older than us to do so we'd all be communicating by writing letters to one another with pen and ink and watching BBC in black & white.

I was recently being ageism put out of a job because the older lady owner told me I am struggling physically on the job. She herself did not want to take the position, it involves too many stairs. I took it, was great with the people but she employed a 17 years old girl who was just looking at her feet and did not say a word on the trial shift. Needless to say, God has seen it.

I agree about older people being more likely to have poor health, and in many cases this is made worse because of lack of money, but I don't know why it is considered more difficult to book appointments online or use online banking as we get older.

I think that there are people of all ages who don't want to do those things, but everyone on here can use the Internet and if you can post on GN you can book a GP appointment. Young people can have hearing impairment and lack of money to buy computers and other devices too. Making this into an age discrimination thing does nobody any favours, IMO.

The bottom line is that booking, paying and doing a lot of things online keeps costs down for everyone, and is much more convenient. As time goes by more and more of our lives will go that way. There will be stragglers, but most services have alternative ways to do things (eg my surgery will do the online booking for those who really can't manage) and if someone is unable to manage they may well need someone looking after them anyway. My MIL is 100, and can't use a computer, but her family does it for her. If we weren't there she would probably be in care (for all sorts of reasons unconnected to IT), so the staff would do it. My own mum is 90 and does a lot online, whereas I know much younger people who just don't want to - I don't see it as necessarily age-related. Should the rest of us have the inconvenience and expense of having to pay in person and make special trips to banks because others don't like doing it online?

Sorry - I got distracted half way through my post, and AuntieE has already said much of what I did.

I remember resisting on-line banking when my local branch closed. I thought it was all wrong.

My daughter told me I would soon get used to it and now I don't know what I would do without it!

Sometimes we can be wrong about stuff...

I'm beginning to loathe that every aspect of my life is apparently 'online'.

M&S and the Co-Op have admitted that millions of their customers had their personal data lifted recently by hackers but, curiously, were ultra-swift to say that no banking details were compromised.

Really? So the hackers were incompetant enough to miss that bit, or they took pity on customers and thought "naw, we'll leave their bank details alone - it wouldn't be right".

Or M&S and Co-Op know more than they're letting on?

Tech is efficient when it works properly, but when it goes wrong en masse it's the nightmare of all nightmares.

I think men are much more likely to say they can cope when they can't. They will not admit to having problems.

"Really? So the hackers were incompetant enough to miss that bit, or they took pity on customers and thought "naw, we'll leave their bank details alone - it wouldn't be right""

Bank details would have been kept on a different system and encrypted.

I think it isn't just the technology side, but the health side - and attitudes of Doctors and specialists (speaking from personal experience there!). I have been quite shocked at being dismissed with knee problems (another story). Similarly in my early 50s, my foot pain was dismissed as "the menopause". I actually believed that at first until I saw a podiatrist who wrote to my GP and said I should have an MRI scan. GP said "they won't find anything". Well they did - I had large neuromas in both feet!

I think women generally still get taken less seriously than men by Doctors.

I get fed up with being walked into when leaving shops, overtaken in queues and ignored at zebra crossings. If one more person says to me "I'm sorry I just didn't see you there" I shall scream. It seems that I keep forgetting to take my invisibility cloak off before I go out.

I am also a little bit tired of being talked down to in the patronising way reserved for little old ladies. I was at an automatic checkout the other day and I was managing perfectly well, as I always do, when this man came up, unasked, to 'help' me and completely mucked up the transaction.

I have yet to witness any old men being treated like this.

I don't know why it is considered more difficult to book appointments online

I think the problem is that there are a limited number of appointments available, hanging on to the phone for half an hour because "You are number 12 in the queue" at 8 am and you are feeling ill is not easy. Then to get through and be told all appointments have gone, you can make one for seven weeks' time if you like is not patient-friendly. Nor is trying to get a repeat prescription.

Obviously, someone who is hard of hearing cannot manage a telephone consultation, but his GP would be the first to know and acknowledge this
Really? Not in our experience.

I don't think it's old people who are the problem, it's the inefficient systems which were introduced to improve efficiency but have the opposite effect which are at fault.

Allira

^I don't know why it is considered more difficult to book appointments online^

I think the problem is that there are a limited number of appointments available, hanging on to the phone for half an hour because "You are number 12 in the queue" at 8 am and you are feeling ill is not easy. Then to get through and be told all appointments have gone, you can make one for seven weeks' time if you like is not patient-friendly. Nor is trying to get a repeat prescription.

Obviously, someone who is hard of hearing cannot manage a telephone consultation, but his GP would be the first to know and acknowledge this
Really? Not in our experience.

I don't think it's old people who are the problem, it's the inefficient systems which were introduced to improve efficiency but have the opposite effect which are at fault.

My post said I don't know why it is considered more difficult to book appointments online as we get older' and I don't. I agree that some of the systems are awful, but they are as bad for the young as for older people. My point is that I keep seeing and hearing comments about how online engagement is discriminating against older people, and I don't think it is.

I realise that this may not apply to everyone, but my surgery has a system whereby you type your problem into a box and post it. It is then triaged and someone calls you back - almost instantly if urgent - and you get an appointment to be seen or spoken to on the phone, a prescription is sent to a chemist for you, you are asked to come in and give blood samples, or whatever. It is very efficient - more so than having to go in to see a doctor before the process starts.

As I said, the receptionist will fill in the box for those who can't do it, but they go in the same queue as everyone else. I have heard people complain that they weren't given priority - 'why can't she just make me an appointment if she's going to fill in the form?' The triage system ensures that appointments are based on clinical need.

Good heavens!

Please could your surgery have a chat with our Practice Manager?

Contactless is fine as long as you still always remember your PIN as randomly you are asked to key the number in.
I think most people do move with the times tho Mum in her 80’s has a few friends who neither drive or have a PC or a tablet and only a very basic mobile.

Allira

Good heavens!

Please could your surgery have a chat with our Practice Manager?

I know! It’s so much better than the last system where you had to ring at 8, along with a million others, and when told there were no appointments do it all again the next day. 8.00 is when a lot of people are on the way to work, and don’t want to discuss their haemorrhoids in front of everyone on the bus or train.

This is so much better, but people still complain that they are being ‘forced’ to use the Internet.

I'm taken aback by attitudes to older people in general. I had an uneasy experience at a theatre. Went to a concert, very hot evening. Stood in queue to buy a bottle of juice. Young woman serving was very pleasant to the couple in front. My goodness what a shock I got when she came to serve me, took one look and God what a po face she put on. It really was a transformation. I asked politely for a juice, she never even met me with eye contact. I remained polite but she had been so nice to the couple who were younger, in front. I also find we are blamed for all society's ills.