I've had various computers, laptops and tablets over the years and have had  mobile phones for 30 odd years so I think of myself as fairly tech savvy however I think I've finally found my match in the NHS Orkney site!

The back story, if you require treatment or investigation that can't be supplied here you get sent 'south' usually Aberdeen but can be Inverness or even Glasgow. NHS Orkney pay travel expenses but you have to apply to get them to book flights etc

NHS Orkney have a travel page https://www.ohb.scot.nhs.uk/service/patient-travel where as you can see fairly near the top is a download marked Patient Travel Funding Request (Form 1) so far, so simple.

However, clicking on link downloads a .docx form that for me anyway, nearly 60 with a fairly new Android phone, doesn't make sense! The download consists of a couple of pages of nonessential gobbledygook and every section that you have to fill in you first have to delete what is there already! 

Once you've finally got it filled out there is no way of directly emailing it to the NHS, I've found the 'easiest' way is to download the completed form to your phone and go back to the NHS page and click on the email link and attach form etc 

Does anyone want to try and see if there's an easy way to do this and I'm just not getting it? 😂

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the NHS and all it does for us but I feel that this could be easier to fill out and God knows what my mum would have done if she had to do it! 

Just tried it, same on my phone, doesn't auto-delete words and no way to email directly.

I wonder if it works better through Adobe on a laptop?  I tend to do all forms on the laptop as I prefer that to typing on a phone. 

Agree, it's very poor and likely worse if you don't have MS Office (I am Linux Mint with Libre Office)
I believe there is a way to create a .pdf where you can fill in online and return but they obviously haven't done that.
No, it's not just you!

Many thanks for trying and proving it's not just me! 😀 

We've only got one laptop in the house just now, mainly used by Mrs Turvey for eBay. I don't think it's got Adobe and it certainly doesn't have my email on it but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Doesn't alter the fact that most folk, I think, would use a phone to fill it out.

Just for fun, downloaded it on my Windows 7 laptop. DocX form is perfectly formatted for me, each field auto deletes when I type over it. I have never used my phone to download a form onto it, I'd have no patience or skill to type on such a tiny screen 😂

13 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Just for fun, downloaded it on my Windows 7 laptop. DocX form is perfectly formatted for me, each field auto deletes when I type over it. I have never used my phone to download a form onto it, I'd have no patience or skill to type on such a tiny screen 😂

Did it open in genuine Microsoft Word?

Interestingly, I've tried it on the laptop this morning and can't find any way to edit it for free.  I don't use proper Word (just the free OpenOffice version) and it won't work in that.  Doesn't open in free Adobe Acrobat unless converted to PDF first, which is easy enough online, but then still won't let me edit it without upgrading to the 7 day free trial.  Definitely seems like more hassle than it should be!

38 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Did it open in genuine Microsoft Word?

I have Word 2007 installed. Now an 18 year old software version but I've never had to do anything it couldn't handle, and it's never failed to open any 'word' document I've wanted. Obviously it's not an 'official' version (though genuine), but a mate lent me his work copy to install 🤣

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Interestingly, I've tried it on the laptop this morning and can't find any way to edit it for free.

If you have need to use 'word' on more than the odd occasion, you can pick up genuine copies of it on Ebay for about £20. To be fair, if that's what MS had charged originally rather than £150, I would not have gone out of my way to pay them nothing!

56 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

If you have need to use 'word' on more than the odd occasion, you can pick up genuine copies of it on Ebay for about £20. To be fair, if that's what MS had charged originally rather than £150, I would not have gone out of my way to pay them nothing!

I've been using OpenOffice Writer completely free for well over a decade.  It does have the odd limitation compared to Word but I've always found ways around it.  I don't mind paying for hardware but never pay for programs or apps.

So if I were to email the NHS to let them know of my frustrations filling out the form, is there any available format that would be easier for the end user IE me and I presume free for the NHS to use, that I could suggest? Although I don't believe for a minute I'm the first person to have difficulty.

14 minutes ago, Turvey said:

So if I were to email the NHS to let them know of my frustrations...

One of the survey panels I am a contributor of always send the following. I'm afraid it's all down to the way the form is formatted, and it sounds as if yours isn't really formatted for a phone...

I think offering it as an editable PDF would be an improvement on both PC and mobile.  (Possibly in addition to the DOCx?)

In order to have a 'direct' form I think they'd need to build a whole system and that would cost too much.  That is the type of form used by the local council and government sites though.  I've had to use several of those lately and although they're a bit clunky, they do actually work.