Glasgow's Health Hub
Fiona Walker, GHH Editorial Group (Chair)
Introduction
Glasgow’s Health Hub is a superb new public focused health and social care website developed by NHS Greater Glasgow in partnership with Glasgow City Council. It was launched on the 29th September, 2005 by Tom Divers, Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Councillor John Lynch, Convenor of Culture & Leisure Services at Shettleston Library in the east end of the city and is already proving a great success.
Comments from users so far have been very positive and encouraging and will be valuable as an ongoing tool to enhance and improve the site.
“It is fantastic to have all the information I need right at hand instead of having to spend so much time trawling the net for it” Care worker, Glasgow.
Background
Phase one of the project originated way back in 2001 when the Sandyford Initiative Library & Information Services embarked on a pioneering partnership with Glasgow City Libraries. The Sandyford Initiative is Glasgow’s citywide sexual, reproductive and emotional health service which brings together in one unit Genitourinary Medicine, Family Planning and the Centre for Women’s Health along with a range of other specialist services. Widening access to health information has always been integral in the Sandyford agenda and a unique partnership utilising monies available from the city Councils Modernising Government Funding (Access Glasgow) was formed to widen access to health information and resources by extending access to the specialised health and wellbeing resources of the Sandyford Library via the network of 33 community libraries.
The Sandyford Initiative (launched in Sep 2000) was already unique in having a public lending library within an NHS setting and this new collaborative project enabled health information services to be extended using interlibrary lending to reach some of the most excluded communities in the City.
A pilot public health website was developed within this funding (Access Glasgow Health). This was based on the dataset of records held within the Glasgow Health Information Gateway (GHI) www.ghi.org.uk . This in itself is a unique Glasgow focused gateway to quality health information aimed at health professionals and initially developed collaboratively within the Glasgow Health Information Group network.
Glasgow’s Health Hub is effectively phase two of this website project.
Development
The NHS Greater Glasgow Library Strategy aims to widen access to information and resources for all NHS staff across Glasgow and to establish new ways of working together to improve library and information services. This includes finding ways of extending access to quality health information and resources to members of the public and a cross sectoral Editorial Group was formed as a subgroup within the NHSGG Library Strategy Partnership Group. Members of the Editorial Group include representatives from within the NHS, the City Council libraries, the council Electronic Resources Team, Social Work Dept and the Higher Education sector.
The Editorial Groups task was a sizeable one - to produce a user friendly, Glasgow focused, quality health and wellbeing website aimed at the general public. A one-stop electronic shop for information on health and related issues affecting the citizens of Glasgow!
Factors taken into consideration in the development of this new site included:
- Home Page Topics to reflect the social model of health
- Glasgow resources to be prioritised
- User friendly language
- Public oriented sites within health and social care
- Links to health related events in Glasgow
- Links to local groups and organisations
- Contact details for local groups and organisations without a web presence
- Advanced search facilities
Methodology
The first stage was to tag records within the GHI professional database for inclusion in the public focused GHH site. This ensured the number of hits produced from a simple search by a member of the public was both directly relevant and relatively concise. An Advanced Search facility was included at the end of every Results page enabling the public to search more deeply when required and advising users that they would now be searching across a site aimed at health professionals – in effect the full range of records within the GHI.
The central area of the Home Page lists Topics selected to reflect issues affecting people’s health and wellbeing in the widest sense. It is not a list of medical conditions. Within each of the Topics listed, the number of sites listed has been kept deliberately low in order to highlight key sites at first glance. Topics were researched and reviewed by experts within our own network and checked against our selection criteria for inclusion within the site. Topics include Alcohol Misuse, Care & Support, Healthy Living, Learning Disabilities, Parenting & Pregnancy, Mental Health, Violence & Abuse, Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual /Transgendered.
“Find…” gives instant access to GPs, Hospitals, Community Information and Voluntary Organisations. There is also a link to Resources Without Websites here. This link provides valuable contact details for local organisations and support groups that would otherwise prove difficult to locate. Contact details listed here are provided by the Sandyford Library Services specialist database.
Quick Links gives access to NHS Greater Glasgow, the City Council, Glasgow’s Learning, the Scottish Executive and various other Gateways.
The latest health news can be found by selecting the News link, and Current Topics are highlighted on the right hand side of the Home Page to promote current health events.
User testing was carried out within the community libraries and changes made to the site as necessary. The user testing questionnaire was developed based on the approach used in testing the new Glasgow City Council website and was undertaken on a one to one basis by Lifelong Learning supervisors in the community libraries with individuals attending the library Internet Workshops.
Various features were incorporated to ensure the site was fully accessible to all users including those using text readers.
Conclusion
The final result www.glasgowshealthhub.org.uk is something the Editorial Group can be proud of. Like all good sites it will undergo a continual process of improvement and development. Comments and nominations for new site additions are particularly welcome and can easily be submitted using the online form.
Thanks are due to John Hutchinson (Web Editor) and Audrey Sutherland / Jean Kavanagh (Electronic Resources Team) for their technical expertise and web development skills enabling the site to look and function as well as it does and to all the other members of the Editorial Team who with much enthusiasm have spent a great deal of time and effort working on the site content. So, thanks to - Cathie Pratt (Social Work), Alison Faichney (Glasgow University), Linda Gillan (Community Librarian).
Please feel free to contact myself or John Hutchinson who will be happy to supply any further information.
Fiona.Walker@glacomen.scot.nhs.uk
John.Hutchinson@gghb.scot.nhs.uk
Fiona Walker
Library & Information Services Manager
The Sandyford Initiative
2-6 Sandyford Place
Glasgow G3 7NB
0141 211 6717
Fiona.Walker@glacomen.scot.nhs.uk