I’m dyslexic, reveals Hancock, in tribute to ‘enabling’ technology
THE Health Secretary has revealed that he is dyslexic, and says he might never have achieved career success without the use of a spell-checker.
Matt Hancock said he had never spoken about the matter before because he did not like talking about weaknesses, in an interview with Alastair Campbell in GQ magazine.
The minister said technology could have a detrimental impact on the mental health of young people – but could also help them to succeed.
“Technology can be an enormous enabler. I have never really talked about this before, but I am dyslexic and I didn’t find that out at school. I found out at university, when a tutor said: ‘You are good orally, but you cannot get it down on paper.’
“I think if Microsoft had invented spell-check five years later, it would have had a massive negative impact on my career.
“By the time I got to the workplace, everything was done on word processors and that solved my very serious spelling problem,” said Mr Hancock.
The minister, who graduated with a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University after being taught at an independent school in Chester, said he found it difficult discussing the matter.
“I have never talked about this because it’s a weakness, and people don’t like talking about weakness, it makes you feel vulnerable, but with the help of technology, dyslexia helps you think laterally because you have to work your way round problems.”
And he told a fringe meeting of the Conservative party conference that his dyslexia may have been the reason his colleague lost his seat.
“You might remember the Tories lost Guildford in 2001,” he said, explaining that he planned a pamphlet with the catchphrase “I want to unite the community” – only to realise, after it had been delivered to 50,000 households, that it in fact said “untie”.
In his conference speech, he pledged to end the era of “blindly closing community hospitals” – promising to bring more services closer to the communities they serve.
And he told a fringe meeting that the NHS should follow the lead of driverless cars and embrace technology – even if it doesn’t work perfectly.
Mr Hancock urged GPS to do more to adopt innovations such as virtual consultations via video, and the use of artificial intelligence.
The minister, who became Health Secretary in July, personally uses an app called GP at Hand which uses artificial intelligence to assess symptoms and offers smartphone consultations.
He told a Conservative fringe meeting that the NHS cannot afford to wait before rolling out new technology.
“People say … we’ve got to make sure it works perfectly for everybody before we roll it out. No we don’t, we have to roll it out for people who can benefit while making sure it is clinically safe. But clinically safe means up to high safety standards.”
Humans could make far more errors than automated systems, he said.
“There’s an analogy here with driverless cars. If driverless cars, autonomous cars, can reduce the risk of an accident compared to a human by 90 per cent – but it still hits the headlines when one of those 10 per cent happens – then that’s still an improvement,” he said.
Prof Helen Stokes-lampard, the chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said such innovations needed careful development, warning: “I’m not having patients crashing.”
It comes as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned adverts for GP at Hand for failing to make it clear that users must leave their current doctor and need to wait up to a week or more after registering before they can access the service.
The adverts made claims such as “See an NHS GP in minutes for free 24/7’’, “Sign up in 3 minutes” and “A simple, secure and convenient way to access NHS healthcare”.
The ads attracted complaints for not making it clear that users must leave their current GP or that the service was only available to those who lived or worked in specific catchment areas.
A GP at Hand spokesman said some “minor changes” had been made to the ads to make the sign-up process and eligibility criteria “even clearer”.