People in north Powys who don’t have access to the internet are now able to visit a support hub in Newtown to help them attend online medical consultations.

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Powys Teaching Health Board's Digital Transformation Team has teamed up with the Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO) and the North Powys Wellbeing Programme to offer local residents support to get online in a pilot project.

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Sue Hamer is the health board’s Digital Programme Manager and she explained: “In the past 18 months there has been a real move to offer more patients the opportunity to take part in medical consultations with specialists using our video-conferencing system, called Attend Anywhere. However we know that some people will need a little support to access this; either because they don’t have the equipment or perhaps they don’t have the confidence to use the software.”

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“So, thanks to our partnership with PAVO, residents can now make use of a confidential, safe and secure location at Plas Dolerw on Milford Road, Newtown to ‘virtually’ attend their appointment, “ Ms Hamer added.

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Details of how to access the support will be given to patients by the NHS staff booking their appointment and at the moment, the pilot is open to any service utilising the Attend Anywhere platform.

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Rhys Roberts, PAVO’s lead on the project, coordinates the Newtown support hub.

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He explained: “The hub provides a safe space for those who may not wish to have their online consultation at home for whatever reason that may be. Support staff will be available to provide technical support that may be required in accessing their appointment.

“We realise that for some health services an online consultation won’t be appropriate, but for many therapies it is – and it can save the patient time (and money) when compared to having to travel outside the county,” said Mr Roberts.

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The North Powys Wellbeing Programme is helping to fund the move to make online services more easily accessible as part of its aim of transforming health and wellbeing services in the north of the county.

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Carly Skitt, Assistant Programme Director, explained: “While we are doing a tremendous amount of work in planning for the new multi-agency health and wellbeing campus in Newtown, we are also funding a number of ‘quick win’ projects which support our wider ambition of transforming health and wellbeing services.”

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For further information contact Rhys.Roberts@wales.nhs.uk