Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Breeding with the vigour of rabbits, a variety of private GP services are springing up and jostling for your attention. Why spend hours phoning your own GP when you can choose a private GP by looks and price, having immediate access online or by app without needing to leave your home? Recruitment for GPs in such companies is increasingly competitive, with advertisements promising hourly rates and perks unfamiliar to NHS employees. Some of these companies have bigger ambitions. “Why couldn’t Babylon be a patient’s NHS GP?” asks Ali Parsa, CEO of Babylon—an IT company whose app, he says, is faster and more accurate than doctors in risk assessing cases.1 The NHS in north London has gone further, commissioning his company to offer “symptom advice” through a smartphone app service—“NHS 111 powered by Babylon”2—although …
Margaret McCartney (Tue,) studied this question.