GP at hand - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Gone to the dogs
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 February 2024
I joined Babylon about six years ago and they were incredible. The ability to have appointments online and attend a clinic close to my work was a real selling point. I used to be able to get appointments within 24 hours if urgent, and a couple of days for regular appointments. The staff are great, I have only had one bad experience with medical staff in the six years of being a patient and their clinics are really modern and great to use. The reason for my 1 star is that since it was taken over by eMed appointment availability has become dire. It’s minimum 10 days to get an appointment and no emergency appointments are available for urgent need. I’ve got asthma, now have a chest infection and don’t have the luxury of waiting 10 days to see a doctor. This is a not infrequent occurrence for me and I need to be able to access care quickly when I get these infections. I tried calling the helpline but was told no appointments were available before 15 Feb (10 days from time of writing), the same as on the app. I’m now having to reconsider if I can remain with this service as all they could offer is “call 111”. It is ridiculous to send me to this service, wasting a resource I shouldn’t need if my doctor would do its job, for which it is paid to do. I’ve now been sat in University College Hospital London for two hours as by the time I got a call back from 111 it was out of hours and I needed to be seen in person to get a prescription. If this is what Private Equity and American medical group involvement in the National Health Service looks like, I do not support it.
Visited February 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Used to be good, now terrible
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 28 February 2024
I moved to GP at Hand from my local GP during the pandemic, having previously used the Babylon private service. At first it was good, with virtual appointments relatively easy to get at short notice, and face-to-face appointments not too difficult to book when required. However the service has rapidly decreased over the past couple of years. There is now a much longer wait to get a virtual appointment (even longer if you want to speak to a GP), follow-ups are poor, and it is very difficult to get a face-to-face appointment when needed. More than once I have had appointments where I wanted to discuss more than one issue and the clinician I was speaking to told me they could only deal with one of the issues and I’d have to rebook another appointment to deal with the other issue (resulting in an even longer wait). They also no longer offer IUD fitting/removal. I made a formal complaint about a specific aspect of my care in August and chased in September and they have not even bothered to respond. I am now moving back to a local GP.
Visited February 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Terrible
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 14 February 2024
I joined this GP several years ago when it was Babylon Health and it worked great. Since becoming EMed it’s become very difficult to get an appointment, even for something urgent. Today, I had an appointment booked for this morning which EMed cancelled without explanation after I’d been waiting for the clinician to join the call for 20 mins. I’m currently waiting 33 minutes after my re-booked appointment time for the clinician to Jin the call. Their chat function is frozen, so I can’t even speak to one of the agents to find out if I should wait or give up. A specialist clinic has ordered blood tests and said my GP would be in touch about booking them. That was several weeks ago and I’ve heard nothing. I want to change GP but I’m currently in the care of two NHS specialist services and I don’t want changing GP to mess anything up. One of the reasons I went with Babylon is because at the time they had a good reputation for doing shared care agreements, and I don’t want to risk not being able to get that once the specialists sort my medication out. I feel trapped.
Visited February 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Dreadful. Months of waiting.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 02 January 2024
I've been trying to get a blood test since the middle of August 2023. I've either had them cancelled, or had to cancel due to train disruption, and because of the lack of slots available it's always at least a month until the next slot.
Visited January 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Awful.
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Lily Nichol - Posted on 20 January 2024
I've been with GP At Hand for a few years now. What originally started as a service I would recommend has quickly descended into chaos. It is impossible to order repeat prescriptions on time, and they constantly have "no records" which cause delays. They constantly claim I don't have a Shared Care Agreement in place, frustrating me and my specialists and causing significant delays in access to medication. The whole point of the Shared Care system is supposedly to make it support diagnosis and monitoring, and ease access to medication... Getting appointments is almost impossible as 9/10 times they are cancelled with 1 hour notices. They cause endless black holes, sending you from doctor to doctor with no one able to provide answers and wasting NHS resources. My advice is - sign up to any local doctors, it has to be better than this.
Visited January 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Now almost impossible to see a GP
Rated 2 stars out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 05 January 2024
A previously good service. It is now impossible to see a GP through this service. I would not recommend.
Visited January 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Dire
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 19 February 2024
The service has gone completely downhill. GPs cancelling appointments last minute after a 2.5 week wait with no explanation, then having to rebook another 2-3 weeks later. Being bounced around every single NHS trust in London for hospital appointments. Unreliable and unable to physically see a GP anymore.
Visited January 2024
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Not fit for purpose
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 December 2023
This service was great in the beginning but unfortunately is now not fit for purpose, especially if you need a same day appointment. After days of trying to get an urgent appointmemt with GP at Hand I ended up being admitted to hospital for something I believe could have been avoided. The average wait time seems to be 2 -3 weeks. This is no good if you want avoid becoming seriously ill. GP at Hand via a phone call today have informed that it is a first come first served srrvice. Patients who require same day urgent appointment must call 111. Those who need a repeat prescription you can email for one which is not advertised in the app. My discharge sheet says I must do a follow up appointment within 48 hrs with my doctor but again there are no appointments in this time frame so my conclusion is, after care by GP at Hand is non existing. No wonder 111, hospitals and urgent care walk in centres are over stretched due to GP services like this one. If this service was fit for purpose, I would have been properly assessed by a doctor in person, prescribed antivirals within the first 72 hrs, prescribed a different antibiotic, prescribed inhalers. If this basic care was provided by GP at Hand, the hospital would have saved on financial resources and my illness would not have been prolonged. I will probably have to wait until January now to get an appointment if I'm lucky enough not to end up in hospital again. This is one very disappointed customer who would not recommend this service to anyone especially those who may be worse off than myself.
Visited December 2023
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Terrible service, used to be great, now oversubscribed
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Julia B - Posted on 28 December 2023
This service is dangerously oversubscribed. It used to be great in the beginning when you could get an appointment same day (surely the point of having online services.) Now you have to wait 1- 2 weeks for an appointment so you'd better hope you don't have anything pressing like a UTI or you'll end up up with a very long wait in A&E when all you need is a straightforward prescription. I see on other posts there is the excuse of pressure across the NHS, those responsible for the NHS and its processes need to take some responsibility for the absolutely shambles across our health services and actually do their jobs instead of blaming everyone else and the government. People are paying a lot of money in taxes, it is by no means a free service. By trying to give a free and ever expanding service to all that enter the country, including an increasing number not contributing to the cost is no longer providing a free system to all but a costly system that is worthless to all. Privatisation will be the next step and we may finally get half decent health care.
Visited December 2023
GP at hand has not yet replied.
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Review titled Seriously downhill
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 12 December 2023
Much like other reviews, the service was great to begin with - appointments could be made the same or next day. Now it’s 9+ days. I left my gp to sign up to Babylon, now I’m in urgent need of antibiotics and can’t access a surgery. It’s an extremely poor way to treat patients and Babylon should be ashamed. ‘NHS waiting times’ is not a valid excuse, to go from 1 day to 12 days waiting with no alternative or clear options to access urgent care? Pure negligence. Would give you minus points if I could. Disgusting.
Visited December 2023
GP at hand has not yet replied.