Online GP surgery biz Babylon gives up fight against Brit health watchdog, owes £11k

Digital health outfit Babylon has withdrawn a legal challenge against the UK's Care Quality Commission (CQC) concerning a report into its practice's operations. The biz, which lets people video chat with and text doctors rather than seeing them in person, will have to cough up £11,000 in costs. Yesterday Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure many GPs would love to operate a surgery where they can impose technical limitations to ensure that only people who are generally healthy and not old and burdensome with complex medical problems are generally encouraged to sign up.

Many GP surgeries also would not allow a patient who they know has an addiction to strong pain killers to get extra prescriptions due to 'losing' their current medication. However an online GP can just prescribe without access to the relevant notes based upon the symptoms presented by the patient and endangering them.

In the new modern era where the NHS is under funded these great new initiatives sound 'amazing', if only the boring traditional practices that are left with all the problems at the other end didn't moan so much,

[Anonymous Coward]

Old boys leech network.

Babylon is run by the former CEO of Circle. The private company who tried to run Hinchenbooke, claimed thy were saving loads of money, but ran the place into the ground, then as is typical with private sector leeches, bailed on the contract. Now the scum are back at it. A GP practice that only want healthy patients. Claim patients are exploiting the app, sue in order to prevent truthful reports being published. Whoever allowed this company to operate a GP practice will no doubt turn up on the payroll of Babylon, Circle, or one of the other related parasites.

[TrumpSlurp the Troll]

Business model

Profit before all and treat a CQC audit like an unfavourable Tripadvisor review.

I'm not aware of any other health body which sues the CQC if they don't like the audit report.

Edit: Barbara Streisand trained PR team?

[phuzz]

Re: Business model

I wonder at what point it sank in that if they'd not made a fuss than probably about ten people total would have read the CQC, and now everyone's wondering what else they're trying to hide...

[Warm Braw]

A GP practice that only want healthy patients

I have just moved and needed to change GPs. The new practice took my name and date of birth and on learning I am approaching retirement age asked "you're not on lots of medication, are you?" before confirming whether their list was open to new patients.

A former practice made the headlines for writing to its older patients asking them to move to other GPs as the practice had a large student population and therefore didn't have the "experience" to deal with older, and significantly more expensive, patients.

Nearly all GP practices are private businesses (not many are limited companies - yet - but they're still independent contractors): if the NHS controls their gross income and no-one controls demand, the GP's only control is on their expenditure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A GP practice that only want healthy patients

A practice can't close its lists selectively. Either they accept new patients - the default position or they have been (in exceptional circumstances) allowed to closed their lists by their relevant health overseer. There is no such thing as a partial closure.

GP practices are not allowed to be limited companies (or LLPs) due to restrictions on the GP contract unless a particular health authority allows this at contract renewal/ Therefore nearly all GP practices are either health authority owned or owned by a collection of GP partners. These partners have to take all the risks including large mortgages and capital expenditure, salaries and redundancy costs for a contract that says you will take on unlimited numbers of new patients for a lot less than £100 per patient per year for unlimited access to routine and emergency medical advice with a GP and in some parts unlimited medicine for free as well.