Babylon Health 

I’m not sure or that is right to charge people without giving them help. I booked appointment and next day was waiting for call at 10.40 they called me at 10.33am till I was in the kitchen I missed a call…. I tried call back afte 2min but not available was…they called me back and was shoving that hostess will join soon after 5 min of waiting no one joined and call was cancelled… they sent me a message that they missed me and I can rebook appointment but they charged me again … and it not so cheap as it cost 45£ for appointment

The product is buggy on multiple levels. Couldn't log into the app, so had to use the website. Couldn't get my id verified. When I called for customer support, the number was dead.

Unfortunately, it keeps getting worse. I chose Babylon for my registered NHS GP, as i do not like visiting surgeries and waiting rooms and most of my problems are easy to discuss without examinations and i mostly needed prescriptions.

However, the one main benefit of Babylon other than the fact that you do not have to move from your house to see a GP, was that it was FAST.

Nowadays the minimum wait is 2 weeks to speak to anyone. If you want to speak to someone you spoke before, it can be a month.

It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to maintain health and prescriptions based on these times. I had an appointment with a clinician and they said that all my prescriptions do not need reviews. 3 days later, trying to get a prescription ordered, i couldn't, becase 'it needed a review'. Guess when the next appointment i could book was? You guessed it, 2 weeks, by which time, my medicine would run out.

This service used to be good. Nowadays its a joke. There is no real benefit other than staying home. Either hire more people or close shop. This is just not working anymore. I will try to route most of my appointments through my private GP (thank god some jobs pay for this) and will only use the most basic things here, if that is not possible, i will just switch to my local GP.

Sad. Really sad. This company became just like every other 'digitally transformed' company, where they try to show nice at the beginning, then when the cost cutting comes in, the service falls to the ground. You are the health equivalent to Evri, the couriers.

And the app tends to push too hard to speak to a nurse/pharmacist. I DO NOT want to speak about a serious repeat prescription with any of these, but a GP. Thanks. If you feel safe talking about serious drugs with a prescribing nurse, go ahead. You do you.

Update after the answer from Babylon:
While i do appreciate the 'NHS is under a lot of stress and demand' and all the other cookie cutter responses needed to be given when anyone complains, the fact of the matter remains. I am unable to get support in a timely manner. If 2 weeks is the minimum i need to wait, guess what - i wont. Your 'contractual' requirements are not my problem, neither a thing i need to care about. What my problem is, that needs solving, is generally timely access to GPs and other clinicians. You can look at it from your end alone and say that you are well within your operating 'rights' but at the end of the day, all you really are, is your customer's numbers. If customers leave in big numbers, i do not think this is sustainable. Is it?

Poor communication, can’t even fill the form for insurance. Health deteriorating due to Babylon intentional delay. Now they are ignoring me. I’m entitled for NHS care being a high tax payer which I’m not even expecting or asking for given how Useles they are and I only need a form filling so I can use it for my insurance but they cannot even do that. Wish we had a choice to contribute to nhs and if we don’t we go private. Now we pay nhs and on top pay private plus insurance.
I have put an official complaint with PALS and medical negligence lawyer. Had enough of these people

I’ve had a brilliant experience with Babylon using it twice with the same GP - would recommend!

I got an appointment within 24 hours with a referral and prescription within 15 mins after.

Terrible service. I booked an appointment with a GP for my daughter and paid £59 for it. I waited for 1 hour but the GP didn’t join the call, then the appointment was cancelled by Babylon. I asked for a refund but they told me that it would take 10 business days for the refund request to be reviewed and they would let me know about the outcome. Quite outrageous and unprofessional! I will not recommend anyone to use Babylon

Dreadful service. Had a phone call appointment booked and received a notification that the GP was running late. Then, a few minutes later my appointment was cancelled because they had “missed me”. My phone had not rung once in the half an hour I sat with my phone in hand waiting. When I contacted customer service they said I may be eligible for a refund. May?! Would not waste time and money

This company is worse than a local GP, which is already really bad.

Now the MINIMUM wait for a visit is 14 days because they prioritise PRIVATE customers.

This is outrageous and UK is not US.

--
Answer to Babylon's answer:
---
I will keep choosing local GP over Babylon, for how bad they are, they are still better than Babylon.
Your apologies are not useful. Changing your politics from moneymaking to taking care of the health of people would be.

In particular:
- This happened across many months, which rules out the exceptional circumstances
- Contractual requirements is about liability, not care
- Your response does not address any problem, but it is only a formal answer for public image purpsoses

Overall, with your respose you confirm you are just a moneymaking company, US alike, without any interest in healthcare.

It used to be better. It takes much longer to get an appointment than when I joined a few years ago. And it sucks when you need to physically see someone, as their clinics aren’t local for me in London. But I love the convenience of video appointments!

I was in deep s**t mentally, never knew I was suppressing some issues, I was set up with extremely wonderful people, so nice. They helped me through the bad time I was going through, those ladies deserve 10 stars.
In August I get an email from the company stating that effective immediately all of my appointments were canceled, and that I would need to find help elsewhere, (3 weeks prior to a follow up appointment for med management). Yeah didn’t need to see that. So at this point I felt that I took 10 steps forward and Babylon sent me back to square one. No warning, nothing. Immediately stop taking my insurance in my area, figures. It is what it is.

Danger to your health
Multiple times I've been prescribed an incorrect treatment. Doctors are incompetent, with a really bad attitude. Waiting times are awful. App is not user friendly. Ended up in the hospital because of them. Please look for a local GP - likely much better care.

Absolutely huge deterioration in quality of service despite raising prices. Used to be able to get a GP appointment via phone on the same day or the next day, now it’s impossible. It went from being 5 days to 7 days to 9 and now today I am told I simply am not able to book one. Appointments are cancelled at the last second when they are made. What exactly am I paying for then?

I have an appointment today at 10.40. No body turned up and there was no response and no re scheduling. What a joke this is. Better to refrain from this Service.

Had my first ever scheduled appointment with Babylon for a video GP appointment through my insurance with Bupa, waited over 30 mintues on the link for my appointment no one turned up, after 15 minutes on hold to their support center I was told I am not on their system, they cannot find me and that they were looking into it... The call handler woman then hung up the phone on me. What a joke of a service considering this is arranged through PRIVATE health insurance which I pay a premium for!

Just terrible. Booked 2 appointments today and both were late and never took place. I'm new to this so I waited almost 1 1/2 hours for someone to call, but then cancelled and booked another appointment in the afternoon. Again, waited more than 1 hour and no one called! What is this all about? Why dos this company even exist? It's an utter waste of time...

cancelled appointments randomly at last minutes mutiple times. long waiting time for an online appoinment

AVOID Never use this service Babylon are more concerned for profit than peoples health!

My Mother is in a coma and we are all very stressed and distraught over the situation trying to get medicine for her to save her life. We set up an account to do this under my name as a person in a coma cannot do it for themselves and requested private prescription for the medication to be sent overseas when making the booking.

Your team know this at the time and decided to make a call to force the charge to stick without any service being provided knowing full well that no service would or could be provided by reading the request. 

The option was there for your staff to reject the commission and refund knowing full well that service would not be provided but instead saw a way of milking vulnerable people at a time of need.

A humane and simplest approach would be to cancel and refund via email stating that you cannot provide the service because of reasons
1 not the patients account and 2 not in the UK

Instead, you and all your staff have taken money from us making it harder to save my mum's life, wasting our time and causing more stress.

Clearly, your profit is more important to you and your company than the well-being of the patient, you need to consider producing a code of ethics for your business and staff! 

If you are unwilling to provide a refund we will have to do charge back due to services not rendered.

I booked an appointment today and nobody has contacted me. Then they mentioned that they had IT problems. A company that uses AI is having issues with their lines.

No one attends confirmed appointments. I waited half an hour this morning for a GP on the video link, no one turned up or had the courtesy to cancel, and as a final indignity I received an email saying I had not shown up for the appointment and reminding me to cancel in future if I couldn't make it!! Unbelievable. It's the private digital GP through BUPA too - no NHS excuse.
Tried to call Babylon to make a complaint rather than leaving it here but gave up after nine minutes on hold.

I can forgive Babylon for multiple shoddy mental health reviews over the years. I can forgive the time they wrote to tell me that I was using up too many GP appointments while I was going through a cancer scare. I can even forgive them for fobbing off what turned out to be arthritis of the neck because I was 'young and fit' and therefore my problem would be solved by doing the cat-cow exercise every day. But what I can't forgive is their inability to give me my antidepressants when, due to a fault with the app, I had been without for two days, telling me I need a medication review when there's no appointments for 3 days and then telling me to 'order earlier next time' when I ordered over a week ago and it was the fault of their app - which I had already explained. I had to call 111 and pay £11 for an emergency supply through no fault from my own.

It's no wonder Babylon are going under. They are useless. They show no compassion or show any understanding or solution for why someone can't be without medication for 5 days. They show no understanding of why I don't need a medication review for a medication I've been on for almost 10 years. The reality is they have made my health exponentially worse and kicked me when I'm down every single time I've asked for help.

I've now deregistered. Huge shame as a few years ago Babylon were excellent, but I cannot and will not trust a service who treats someone in desperate need of medication in this way.