A city in the Midlands is set to offer residents a single health app for access to video consultations and AI-developed diagnosis, triage and care plans, it has been announced.
The deal represents a breakthrough for Babylon Health, which has struggled to secure permissions to expand its GP At Hand app across the UK. It has secured a ten-year partnership with the Royal Wolverhampton Trust, which already runs ten practices in its catchment area – combined as a Primary Care Network – together with acute and community services.
Babylon calls its proposal “digital first integrated care”.
Trust chief executive David Loughton told the Health Service Journal: “The one problem we will always have is workforce. We have got to find different ways of doing things and using AI is one. There will be other things. We can’t keep doing what we are doing because it isn’t working. You have only got to look at A&E attendances over the last period – they are pretty poor. We just can’t keep doing it.”
He added: “The next generation – they won’t want to interact with health services in the way we have done. People are not going to want to turn up at a GP and have an appointment.”
Babylon chief executive Ali Parsa said: “We have over 1,000 AI experts, clinicians, engineers and scientists who will be helping to make digital-first integrated care a reality and provide fast, effective, proactive care to patients. Together with Royal Wolverhampton Trust, we can demonstrate this works and help the NHS lead healthcare across the world.”
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