My mother is 81, and recently had to undergo an operation at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH).

The hospital set the pre-admission financial counselling as a Zoom call, despite my mother telling the staff that she did not know what Zoom was or how to use it.

A few days before the scheduled Zoom call, she received two SMSes reminding her to join the call at the appointed time, and that a link would be sent to her in a separate SMS.

On the scheduled date, my mother had yet to receive an SMS containing the link, so I called KKH’s hotline to inform the hospital that we did not have access to the call. The hotline agent assured us that she would inform the clinic, which would assist us.

No calls came, and I had to make several calls again through the hospital’s hotline. After more than two hours of calling and waiting, I finally received a call, and the financial counselling was successfully completed over my mobile phone in five minutes.

I understand that Zoom calls can be productive for the young, but there are many seniors who are not tech-savvy, and will need their children or caregivers to take time off and be present to join and help with the Zoom call.

I asked the hospital why it needed to schedule a Zoom call if the counselling could have been done so easily with a phone call. The answer was that the Zoom call was necessary for signatures to be taken. I am not aware of how signatures can be collected via Zoom.

Better judgment should be exercised in the use of technology, and seniors should be offered other options that better meet their ability and needs. Technology should serve the elderly, not inconvenience them.

Ho Cheong Tong