A UK-based online platform that enables NHS doctors to see private patients around their contracted hours has received more than £900,000 in funding.
Doctaly allows patients to search for a doctor by name or location, then book an appointment online and pay securely through a computer, mobile or tablet.
The online platform has now secured £915,460 from more than one thousand investors, in order to fund its national expansion.
Doctaly has already been introduced in Manchester, the West Midlands, Kent, Surrey and Scotland.
However, the company is targeting every major city in the UK by the end of 2018, and said the funding will be used to expand to 10,000 NHS GP practices nationally.
“It’s important to point out that every Doctaly patient is one less person in the NHS queue,” says Ben Teichman, Doctaly CEO and co-founder.
“We now know there is significant appetite for Doctaly amongst GPs and patients across the country and we are delighted to have raised significant growth capital to accelerate our expansion, to ease the burden on the NHS and to improve patient access to GPs across the UK.”
The nature of the service is a change from the huge number of online GP consultation platforms to have hit the market, including Babylon’s GP at Hand, which was launched last year.
However, according to one of Doctaly’s co-founders, Dr Dinesh Silva, not everyone is supportive of online consultations.
“Many people neither trust nor want a virtual GP appointment – they want the traditional face-to-face interaction with a GP who can examine them in person for the safest, most accurate diagnosis,” Dr Dinesh said.
“This is what Doctaly provides and the resounding success of our crowdfunding campaign ensures that we can onboard GPs across the UK, making our service available to patients nationwide.”
26 February 2018 @ 16:35
It does seem to be leaching on the back of the workforce and presumably premises and equipment that are NHS funded, and taking capacity that could be expanding the hours of NHS provision.
At a time when we’re trying to persuade people that the GP may not be the best member of the extended integrated team for them to see, this does seem a distraction for the benefit of the worried affluent well.
15 February 2018 @ 13:53
“It’s important to point out that every Doctaly patient is one less person in the NHS queue,” says Ben Teichman, Doctaly CEO and co-founder.
Or one more excuse to reduce NHS funding and create a two-tier system, depending on your point of view.
15 February 2018 @ 12:44
This is an alternative route for patients who have immediate minor ailments. But what if those patients require a far more intricate consultation with reference from their records? In this case they go back their gp’s. Furthermore would this lessen a gp’s workload I would suggest not.
19 February 2018 @ 11:09
I think that’s a pretty small-minded way of viewing this. If a patient needs a type of appointment that is urgent and requires consultation of notes, I’m sure the patient would either book at their GP surgery, or be told to so.
Enabling patients – like I’ve had to do recently – to book a private appointment that is important but minor does indeed remove people from the NHS queue.
Yes, the NHS should be free at the point of need…. as long as you’re willing to wait weeks for the work to be done. But, for people who are willing and able to pay for a clinician to see them either within the day, or within a few days, why not let them do so?