Sick patients will be diagnosed using an ‘artificial intelligence’ smartphone app in a controversial NHS trial to take pressure off the disgraced 111 hotline.
The new NHS 111 app, run by private firm Babylon, will ask users to type in their symptoms and give them advice.
It will be offered to 1.2million patients in a six-month trial starting later this month, as part of a major drive to digitise the NHS.
Those in the north London pilot area who call 111 will be given the option of downloading the app, which will also be advertised in GP surgeries.
Officials last night insisted it would supplement, rather than replace, the 111 telephone service.
But experts have raised concerns about the safety of using a computer program rather than a human being to give health advice. The country’s most senior GP yesterday warned that a seemingly minor problem could quickly escalate – and that only a doctor could spot the signs.
The NHS has already come under fire for its 111 ‘non-emergency’ telephone service. This was launched in 2010 with the aim of cutting costs and reducing pressure on busy A&E departments.
But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said the app would not solve the core issues.
