The new NHS Fife website – nhsfife.org - offers a significantly improved user experience based on user feedback and analytics. The site offers improved navigation, search and accessibility functionality to ensure that information can be found quickly and easily.
The new ‘Find Your Nearest’ section will enable users to identify their closest GP, Dentist or Pharmacy in seconds using simply their postcode, or by geo-location if their devices are configured to allow this.
The content across the site has been provided by clinical teams across the length and breadth of Fife to ensure it is fresh, new and up-to-date with the latest service information. The website was designed from the ‘patient-perspective’ with direct feedback from a range of focus groups and online surveys to ensure the new site would address all the key information that matters to local people in an easy and accessible format.
Importantly, the new site has been optimised for use across a number of devices, with its responsive design meaning that it can be used just as effectively on mobile phones and tablets as with laptop and desktop computers.
The site is also designed to be significantly more accessible that its predecessor and is AA compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the internationally recognised standard in internet accessibility.
NHS Fife’s Head of Communications, Kirsty MacGregor, led the project to replace the Board’s website. She said of the new site:
“We know that it is vital that local people are able to quickly and easily access the information they need on health services in their area and our new website provides a hub
where people to do exactly that. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of our new website.
“Today’s launch of the website is ultimately the start of the project, we will continue to evolve and adapt the site to reflect user feedback and needs over the coming weeks and months.
“Rather than refresh our previous site, we took the bold decision that we needed to start from scratch and design a new, modern site with fresh and up-to-date content. Aside from being considerably more user-friendly, the design is much more intuitive and it is optimised to allow pages to load more quickly than on the previous website.
“Over recent years we have also seen a significant shift in the devices used to access our site, with smart phones and tablets being used much more frequently that they were previously. This change has been reflected in the design, which is more flexible and has been optimised for use across phones, tablets and computers.”
During the Board’s 2018/19 annual review, chair of the NHS Fife Board Tricia Marwick made the commitment that the Board would develop and launch a new website in the next calendar year, a commitment which has now been met. Mrs Marwick said of the new website:
“I am absolutely delighted to see the launch of NHS Fife’s new website and I’m in no doubt that the people of Fife will find it to be a useful resource for information on healthcare services in the Kingdom.
“As a Board we made a commitment that we would deliver this project in the next calendar year, despite the challenges of managing NHS Fife’s response to the global Coronavirus pandemic and we have done exactly that. The new site will enable people to quickly and easily find the information they need, whilst also being able to keep up with the latest developments with healthcare services in Fife. I look forward to seeing how the website will continue to evolve and adapt to continually meet our service users needs“
