NHS: Is New GP App a Help or Menace?

The new app that allows patients to talk to a General Practioner for free via a video-link smartphone has sparked a fierce debate about its impact on the NHS and struggling GP practices. “GP at Hand” is being made available to 3.5m patients in London as part of an NHS-backed trial but GP leaders worry it could drain younger and healthier people away from normal practices, leaving them with a tougher share of the overall healthcare burden.

Many people have already seen targeted adverts popping up on social media for the service, which is funded by the NHS but provided by the private developer Babylon Health. The GP app resembles Babylon’s paid app which is a similar idea to the more widely-advertised Push Doctor app but the new service differs from such paid apps by offering free access to a GP when and where a patient needs one.

When patients join GP at Hand their records are transferred from their previous surgeries to a group of five London surgeries, although the app promises this can be reversed if they decide not to carry on with the scheme.

Embracing New Tech

Dr Mobasher Butt, who is part of the team behind the GP app, told BBC Radio’s Today programme that embracing digital technology offers gains for both patients and the NHS. “It’s high time that NHS patients were given the opportunity to benefit from technology to improve access to healthcare,” he said.

“We’ve benefited from this kind of technology in so many different aspects of our lives, whether that be shopping or banking, and it’s really time that we were able to do that in healthcare for NHS patients.

With the NHS making use of this technology, we can put patients in front of a GP within minutes on their phone, so the days of ringing frantically at 8am for an appointment should be long gone. This new NHS service makes it easier for patients to see a doctor quickly at any time and from anywhere and doesn’t cost the NHS a penny more. It’s a win-win.”

Luring GPs Away

But senior health leaders have warned that GP at Hand risks a fast-track towards privatisation and a poor service for many patients.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said older patients have the greatest need for GP services but will be left out by the digitisation of appointments.

“We are really worried that schemes like this are creating a twin-track approach to NHS general practice and that patients are being ‘cherry-picked’, which could actually increase the pressures on traditional GPs based in the community,” she said.

“We understand that with increasingly long waiting times to see a GP, an online service is convenient and appealing but older patients and those living with more complex needs want continuity of care and the security of their local practice where their GPs know them.”

She also warned that the services provided by the GP app are not comprehensive. “There is an extensive list of patient conditions such as frailty, pregnancy and mental health conditions that are the essence of general practice and which GPs deal with every day but which are not eligible for this service,” she said.

“While this scheme is backed by the NHS and offers a free service to patients, it is undoubtedly luring GPs away from front-line general practice at a time when we are facing a severe workforce crisis and hardworking GPs are struggling to cope with immense workloads.”

by Stewart Vickers

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