Demand for virtual GP services is soaring despite in-person medical consultations opening up and insurers expect this trend to continue, with several seeing numbers more than doubling already.
While government has provided £250m for GP surgeries in England to increase face-to-face GP appointments, Health & Protection has discovered the appetite for virtual GP services from providers shows no signs of abating.
Axa Health, said it had more than four times the overall number of registered users for Axa Doctor at Hand compared with the start of 2020 and five times the number of consultations compared with early 2020.
Alison Esson, propositions manager at AIG Life, revealed demand for its Smart Health remote GP appointments service increased 158% in March 2020 compared to February 2020 as a consequence of lockdown.
“All the signs are that customers really appreciate the benefits of a telehealth GP. Customers have now used the Smart Health GP over 16,000 since the first lockdown,” Esson said.
“Demand was sustained throughout 2020 and has continued to increase in 2021 as requests for appointments are almost 60% higher than at the beginning of the pandemic – 1,276 people sought advice via a Smart Health phone or video GP appointment in August 2021 compared with 808 people in March 2020.”
More than doubled in a year
A spokesperson for Aviva told Health & Protection that the insurer had seen a “significant” increase in Aviva Digital GP registrations and that this trend looks set to continue.
“If we compare the volume of registered users at the end of August 2021 against those registered to end Feb 2020 (prior to lockdown), there has been a 68% increase,” the insurer said.
“Since the beginning of the first lockdown, the average monthly number of appointments has risen to around 5,000 from around 2,300 before.
“As more of our members experience the benefits of this type of service and re-engage with it for their primary healthcare needs, Aviva continues to plan for and accommodate a continued increase in demand,” the spokesperson added.
Vitality revealed that demand for its virtual GP service has doubled in the past year alone.
“This, together with the positive feedback we have had from members on the service, leads us to predict further growth in demand for the service in the coming year,” the spokesperson said.
“Vitality GP is a valuable service and provides an easy and timely way for members to access primary care and onward secondary care, if required. Recognising this, we also have a number of holistic services integrated into our Vitality GP app, including direct access to mental health services, physiotherapy and a skin cancer screening pathway.”
‘No sign of waning’
And Ian Ranger, head of claims and group medical underwriting at Canada Life, described the increase in usage of its virtual GP service as “significant”.
“Since the launch last year we’ve seen a significant increase in take-up of the broad range of health and wellbeing services available through WeCare, which brings SME support services into the digital age for both the insured and their immediate family who live in the same household.
“The demand for registrations to the service, and equally the usage of the range of services available shows no signs of waning.”