11 April 2011
Record numbers of people are finding out about Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals online, new figures reveal.
It's been two years since the Trust re-launched its website, and latest statistics show that almost 1,000 people visit the site every day.
During 2010-11, an average of 30,000 people viewed a total of over 133,000 pages every single month - a significant increase of 30% on the previous year. The most viewed pages include our consultant directory - an interactive guide to our 210 most senior doctors - and a new section where patients can book, cancel or amend the date and time of their appointments.
Recent years have also seen the Trust embracing social networking, attracting more than 900 followers on the microblogging site Twitter and establishing a presence on Facebook.
Web manager Alex Schleif said: "One of the challenges facing any large organisation is how to let people know the latest news and information in ways they find accessible. The ability to get news out to people instantaneously is a huge advantage of Twitter and Facebook.
"For example, throughout the cold snap of last year we were able to provide vital information on appointments, clinics and weather conditions via our website and Twitter in real-time.
"By visiting our website, following us on Twitter and joining us on Facebook, people can keep up-to-speed with everything that's going on in our hospitals, from patient stories to our plans to spend millions of pounds redeveloping our hospitals.
"They can find out what services we offer, look up the details of a particular ward, see how we are performing against Government standards, and also follow our plans to ensure Epsom, Sutton and St Helier hospitals achieve foundation trust status."
It's not all about talking to people, the Trust is listening too. Earlier this year, we used our website to launch 'Your hospital', a special panel of patients and local residents. Anyone can sign up online and they will be invited to give feedback about the work of our hospitals, from the care our doctors and nurses provide to the quality of our food and cost of car parking.
The Trust is keen to improve the website too, especially by making it more user-friendly or by adding information people think might be missing.
Alex added: "We really appreciate the feedback we get from members of the public, patients and staff about our website, whether it's praise or pointing out potential improvements. Visitors can rate almost any page on the site and more than 70% of feedback is very positive, which shows that we're on the right track."
Fun facts
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The majority of overseas visitors to the website come from the USA (20% of all visits from abroad); however, we've had visitors from 180 countries, including Madagascar, Tonga and Mongolia;
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Our most southerly visitors came from Invercargill in New Zealand, and the most northerly from within the Arctic Circle in Tromsø, Norway;
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The website was accessed 14 times from Nintendo Wii game consoles;
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It contains 1,400 content pages and roughly 1,500 downloadable documents.
358,800 people visited the Trust website last year - visit www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk to find out why. Or why not follow the latest Trust news on Twitter http://twitter.com/epsom_sthelier) or search for us on Facebook (facebook.com/epsomsthelier).
