Babylon: GP at hand - all thoughts welcome

[MichaelMumsnet]

Hi folks,

Mumsnet is looking to team up with Babylon to promote their free NHS "GP at hand" service (available to people living or working within 40 minutes of a GP at hand clinic) and Babylon’s paid online doctor (available to all UK residents).

Babylon offers both a free NHS and private 24/7 GP service, which lets members have virtual doctor’s appointments from their mobile, arrange prescriptions for local collection and get specialist referrals.

To get the service for free, you need to live or work within 40 minutes of a GP at hand clinic and switch your registered NHS GP practice to GP at hand, Babylon’s NHS offering. When you register for GP at hand, you will be de-registered from your current GP practice. If you’d prefer to stay with your current GP, you can use the Babylon service on a pay as you go or subscription basis for quick, easy access to doctors anytime.

If you’re not sure whether you need to see a doctor, Babylon offers an AI symptom checker which you can access for free via their app. The app also has a handy tool called Healthcheck, which creates a free health report for you and suggests changes you can make to live a healthier lifestyle.

We think these services could be genuinely useful to parents (and non-parents) and we'd love to know what you think too – all thoughts and comments gratefully received!

MNHQ

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 )

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

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.

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.

Really bad idea. We need to support the NHS.

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??

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

Strongly disagree with this idea

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.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I am sick of paying for private GPs and private prescriptions when I'm entitled to free NHS ones.

Any acknowledgement of the appalling state of the GP "service" is a huge step forward. The "GP at hand" service will undoubtedly save a lot of people a lot of money, and undoubtedly save lives too - because busy people will actually be able to consult a GP.

As already said....a really bad idea

Data mining!

Terrible idea .

Cannot believe you're even considering this Mumsnet - really shitty behaviour.

Quite apart from the privatisation-by-the-back-door issues, hugely inappropriate of MN to be promoting this. It's not a nappy test, FFS.

I'll be off if you go ahead.

Mumsnet, this is a scandalous idea. You have a responsibility not to contribute to undermining the NHS.

No no NO.

This is an awful idea MN. You shouldn't be supporting them.

Mumsnet has campaigned to keep commercialisation (eg Bounty) out of NHS maternity care yet thinks this is a good idea?

I cannot understand this.

@MichaelMumsnet - please can @JustineMumsnet come onto this thread and discuss our concerns.

If you do this, I'm another one who will leave. How can you campaign in the areas you do but allow this company to tie up with you? It seems to run contrary to ideals behind mumsnet.

Do they not accept patients with long term conditions at all then?

If same day appointments become a thing of the past my SN with medical conditions DS would definitely benefit from GP at hand.

I agree with PP but I also have a lot of sympathy for Pringle

I am very lucky in that I am healthy and well with no disabilities. I don't expect to have to see a GP at any point in the foreseeable future.

....and that's bloody lucky because at my practice you cannot see one!

They have paramedics instead

I am not joking. You ring up at 8 (by which time I already need to have left for work) and ask for an appt. If you can get through - and you often can't - you get an unspecified "healthcare professional" phone appt, which you somehow have to take at work in a broom cupboard somewhere - and IF they think you are worthy of a real appt then they make you one - with a paramedic.

He is very nice but frankly I wouldn't trust him to spot diabetes, cancer etc. It's not good enough and telling "easy" patients that we should suck up having no reliable access to healthcare is not okay.

Please don't.

No. Just no. Awful idea for so many reasons. If this goes ahead then I will never use Mumsnet again.

Mumsnet has campaigned to keep commercialisation (eg Bounty) out of NHS maternity care yet thinks this is a good idea?

I cannot understand this.

This.