Richard Eltringham and Barbara Riddell highlight the decline in general practice as the key driver behind patients turning to AI for health advice. A recent study found that one in seven UK adults prefer consulting AI chatbots over seeing a doctor.
The Decline of Continuity of Care
Eltringham argues that the real issue is not a loss of human connection but the evaporation of continuity of care. General practice has become a rotating cast of locums, telephone triage, and endless callbacks. The concept of a named GP who knows your history is now rare. Against this backdrop, chatbots serve as a coping mechanism, offering predictable and accessible transactions without the frustration of trying to book an appointment.
Patient Frustration with Online Forms
Barbara Riddell describes the exhausting process of contacting her GP surgery. Patients are urged to complete lengthy online forms detailing symptoms, duration, daily impact, and attempted remedies. She notes that it is often quicker to input the same information into ChatGPT to gauge the severity of a condition.
Doctors Also Turning to Unregulated AI
Dr Katie Baker warns that the trend extends beyond patients. Doctors are increasingly using unregulated AI tools in daily practice. Without a regulated alternative, more people will turn to untrusted sources for serious health issues, creating a shadow AI economy as described by Professor Graham Lord, lead author of the study. Mixed public trust in medical AI should not slow innovation but rather prompt regulation akin to other clinical tools. While waiting times have improved, a third of treatments still exceed 18 weeks. Digitisation has enabled progress, but NHS leadership must proactively manage this shift rather than leaving patients frustrated.
