Babylon: GP at hand - all thoughts welcome

HCP posting here. Terrible idea. As Pp have said it creams off the easy, young relatively healthy patients (as most private health services do) and leaves the most vulnerable patients at the existing GP. This puts pressure on NHS services whilst lining the pockets of corporations. God knows what happens if you then are involved in an accident and need more NHS services, all use your GP to check your criteria/order equipment like wheelchairs etc. certainly wouldn't be using mumsnet again if they go ahead with this

They've got some awesome technology

The doctor will discuss your symptoms with you and may ask you to show them some things on camera, such as a skin rash, or perform simple checks, like feeling the glands on your neck

There's an app that enables a GP to feel your glands from his/her mobile phone??

Really bad idea. We need to support the NHS.

No, no, no. Adding my voice to the chorus. This is a terrible idea. We should be supporting & investing in the NHS, not privatising it.

Just want to back up the majority of comments above. This is not a good idea, for the many reasons given.
Please rethink this MN.

This is a terrible idea. Their privacy policy alone shows their true intentions.

Sorry , not happy about this .
Fundamentally undermining the NHS
This will just be the nail in the coffin for me using MN ( no pun intended )

No.

Really bad idea MN.

Really bad.

Eh?

NO just no!

Privatisation by the back door and in such a way as to seriously let down the most in need of healthcare - like me, like my dd.

I too would seriously reconsider being an mn member if you do go ahead with this.

AWFUL idea.

@MissMarplesBloomers To be blunt, it's hard to care about the alleged "very many excellent GP services" when you can't access any GP services, let alone mediocre ones.

GP at Hand plugs a gap in the NHS - it provides a solution for Londoners who work long hours and work far away from their GP surgery because they're forced to register near where they live and are forced to live far away from their workplaces due to the cost of living.

It might not be suitable for everyone everywhere, but it is a solution for some people and everyone deserves access to an NHS GP. I've gone from feeling helpless and angry about being unable to get a prescription for life-preserving meds to feeling confident that I can book a consult and get a same day script any time I need one.

Before GP at Hand, I was at the point where I was trying to budget whether I could afford my medicine privately, despite having already stumped up for a pre-paid prescription card. It's not the cost of seeing a doctor privately that is the barrier, it's the fact that you then have to get a private script and drugs cost a small fortune when they're not subsidised on the NHS. People shouldn't have to be doing sums to figure out if they are afford to get hold of basic meds to manage their disabilities and maintain a normal quality of life.

All basic healthcare should be funded by taxes. If the existing GP model is broken, something has to change - and I'm very pleased with GP at Hand so far. I can finally access basic healthcare. It's sad that this was a victory rather than a given.

The people who are so against Babylon should feel grateful that they are apparently lucky to live in a part of the UK where they can make a doctor's appointment and get seen for something that requires a doctor's appointment before their health is jeopardised. Believe me, that's not the case everywhere in the UK.

Even in London the service varies hugely in boroughs. Absolute postcode lottery.

As a disabled person myself, I'm more reliant than ever on face to face contact and an enduring relationship with my GP practice (not limited to one GP, I might add). Not least because, when I have to once again prostitute my health conditions and disability before the likes of ATOS and Maximus, I've taken some comfort from knowing that my flesh and blood, three dimensional 'realness' to my GPs makes them more likely to support me in the event that the DWP's henchmen contact them. I very much doubt the likes of Babylon would be that willing and effective in such a scenario.

But I'm also thinking about the occasions on which a GP has been able to check for lumps, bumps, swellings, rashes, etc. before making a diagnosis, or deciding whether or not to refer me to a hospital. When that has been necessary, it has been relatively efficient and significant. When a physical examination has concluded that I don't need a referral, precious NHS resources have been saved.

I've had to do the legwork and shop about for a practice in my borough (Greenwich) since I moved here over 12 years ago, but it was worth it. I think it's unlikely that any borough in London has absolutely no decent medical centres. I asked friends and colleagues for recommendations and found one I've been with happily now for 11 years.

Does look as if they’re trying to cream off certain (low demand) patients. Yes. That’s private medicine all over.

Does look as if they're trying to cream off certain (low demand) patients.

If you are young and single and with an uncomplicated family medical history, the having a sort-of private GP makes sense because it is convenient. Not sure it works so well for families.

Would they even take me on? In London, so guess I’d qualify geographically. But I’m living with cancer so both I and my cohabitants have some fairly non-standard care.

pringlecat I'm glad it's worked for you, especially having had a crap GP before.

However it (the scheme)undermines the existing very many excellent GP services who will not get the funding needed to keep those excellent services which we should ALL get, free of charge.

Babylon's advert on the tube states that you have to leave your NHS GP in order to sign up with Babylon. Thus depriving NHS GPs of much-needed funding. So I am opposed to the privatisation of NHS services and Mumsnet should not be supporting Babylon

I too will boycott mumsnet if this goes ahead.

It’s bad for patients and doctors and undermines the NHS

Please rethink.

I like GP at Hand. My previous NHS doctor was a joke. Just thinking about him makes my blood boil. Not only was he incompetent, I struggled to make appointments because of his harpy like receptionists. They couldn't get their head around the fact I needed regular appointments and I had a job.

No, I don't want to wait for a call back from a GP at an undisclosed time to triage me for the appointment everyone already knows I need because I have a disability. I have a job. I can't keep checking my phone for a call that may happen at any time. And then, no, I can't come in for an appointment at 5.30 without any notice. I have to plan for an appointment. 5.30 is not after work. Ignoring my commute, I am still at work at 5.30 like everyone else in my profession.

With GP at hand, I book a 10-minute slot during my lunch hour with less than an hour's notice, and everything gets resolved without jeopardising my health or my career.

Yes, I don't get the same GP each time. But my previous GP was an utter waste of space so I really don't care who I see, as long as they're not him.

As for taking funding away from complex patients - I have my own health needs and they were not being met when I was a patient at a traditional practice. So, no, not a terrible idea. A brilliant idea. Now I can actually get prescriptions for the drugs that keep me alive.

Sorry, not sorry.

I know some people in London with great GPs, others with terrible ones like my old GP. It's a postcode lottery. If you're currently losing in that lottery, this is a game changer.

MN can be so self-righteous sometimes. No one needs to apologise for signing up to a service that actually allows them to access healthcare.

Also very disappointed to see Mumsnet supporting the back door privatisation of the NHS.

This is a terrible idea MNHQ and I can only assume this has not been properly thought through.
Very disappointed.

I have asked MNHQ for a response although I suspect they don't really want to hear it! (happy to be proved wrong!)

OlderThanAverageforMN

Excellent to know that for certain health conditions, digital adjuncts are proving valuable. Thank you for that info. And yes the NHS must be progressive, in order to remain robust and sustainable. But as you say, Babylon isn't the answer. It claims to be addressing issues of provision and convenience but is actually part of a cynical campaign to further erode communities and isolate people. It's not good enough. Let people who want private online healthcare knock themselves out, by all means, but this 'initiative' mustn't be allowed to replace or even compromise provision for the very human need for in-person, face to face relationship-based community primary care. Sadly, it will become a flagship project for a more sinister large-scale development if organisations like Mumsnet help birth it

If you continue this partnership I’m boycotting mumsnet.

Really shocked and disappointed with MN .

A bizarre choice of partnership.

Would appreciate some feedback from MN HQ regarding the responses so far.