Phone app that lets you have a 'face-to-face' doctors appointment launches

The UK’s first mobile phone app that enables patients to have “face-to-face” consultations with a family doctor was launched today.

The app, babylon, is described by its makers as “your own health service in your pocket”. It is hoped it will eventually allow access to private clinicians 24/7 without having to visit a surgery.

It enables the user to book video or phone consultations, text a question to a GP or nurse, and arrange consultations with specialists, including those working in mental health.

Arrangements can be made for prescriptions to be delivered to a patient’s home or a pharmacy and hospital scans and X-rays can be booked via consultations with doctors.

It is the latest of hundreds of health-related phone applications. Others help patients find information about medical conditions. However, babylon is believed to be the first to offer a comprehensive service.

The app costs between £7.99 and £19.99 a month, depending on the level of contact users have with clinicians, or users can opt for a pay-as-you-go service which charges £24 per consultation. Ali Parsa, chief executive of babylon, said: “We are taking advantage of the huge advances made in technology, and linking this with the healthcare system to create a bespoke app that acts as a personal virtual hospital.

“In the last five years we have become accustomed to accessing our books, music, friends and work from anywhere and at any time. It is now becoming possible for us to do the same in healthcare.”

Consultations can be stored for future use. From next year the system should be able to upload NHS patient records. An in-built function, Monitor Me, allows users to upload health statistics that doctors can access immediately.

Babylon has been registered with NHS watchdog the Care Quality Commission, and has received designated body status from NHS England — meaning its backers have a statutory duty to ensure that clinicians are properly registered.

Its chief medical officer, Dr Paul Glynne, previously medical director at University College London Hospital, said: “Existing models of healthcare have become increasingly inefficient, expensive and inconvenient for patients. Babylon has created a unique secure app ... to provide accessible, convenient and affordable online healthcare via a patient’s smartphone.”