NHS puts brakes on ‘doctor app’ roll-out

HEALTH chiefs are blocking plans to expand a controversial phone app for patients.

GP at Hand, now operating in London, is said to relieve frontline services by letting users contact a doctor via a smartphone.

More than 26,500 people have signed up, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who says he wants to see the technology ‘available to all’. But a bid to roll out the service in Birmingham by app owner Babylon Health, has been thwarted by NHS England, which fears patients will miss tests or treatment because they have to deregister from their local GP. And GP leaders say online-only consultations can miss serious but less obvious symptoms.

Yesterday, a health commissioning committee in west London, where the app is based, also voted against the expansion.

A Babylon Health spokesman said ‘an opportunity to reduce pressure on primary care and A&Es is being missed’.