GP at Hand Avis 

Each and every time I’ve dealt with GP at hand I’ve been treated with compassion, dignity and respect. Particularly, today, after speaking with Devi Boddu one of the pharmacists I was motivated to complete this review. Devi was able to safely review my medications over the phone and ensured that I had everything I needed over the next few months. She went through everything in granular detail and really left me reassured that GP at hand gave me at the heart of every decision.

I had a medication review with a practice pharmacist (Devi Baddu) who was very professional, friendly, and engaged. Altogether a perfect interaction.

I'm so impressed with all my interactions with GP at hand. They are quick to respond, professional, and supportive. I find their booking and triage process works really well. Special thanks to the amazing clinical pharmacists (Devi) and ANPs (Anna).

Used to be great, not anymore.

Appointments are no longer available at short notice. GPs are never on time. I received two calls and couldn't hear the person on the order side. Next available appointment is in 5 days. Horrible and sad it's gone downhill!!

I am extremely disappointed with GP at Hand’s handling of my BUPA medical form.

I have contacted them and followed up more than 10 times, yet I am still waiting for the form to be completed and returned. More than 30 days have now passed, despite me having paid for the service.

Unfortunately, the NHS has also not been helpful in getting a diagnosis for my lump, which is sadly not surprising given the usual waiting times and difficulties getting timely investigations. This is precisely why I have been trying to arrange private investigations and treatment through BUPA.

However, GP at Hand’s continued delay in completing a simple medical form is now preventing me from moving forward with private treatment. I am genuinely worried that this delay could have serious consequences for my health.

I should not have to repeatedly chase a medical provider more than 10 times and wait over a month for a form to be completed. I am still waiting.

This has been an extremely stressful and frightening experience. GP at Hand urgently needs to improve its communication, administration and handling of time-sensitive medical requests.

I must say that i had a very good professional and quick service to get an urgent prescription for my long term conditions. Special thanks to Katie Etherington at admin and Dr. Devi Boddu The Pharmacist Gp at Hand.
Sincere and kind regards,

GP at Hand: A Service That Has Become Unsafe and Unfit for Patients with Ongoing Health Conditions

I have been registered with GP at Hand for many years. In the beginning, the service was efficient and genuinely innovative. Unfortunately, it has deteriorated into what I consider a superficial, impersonal service that is completely unsuitable for anyone with a chronic illness or a condition requiring ongoing monitoring and follow-up.

Getting an appointment with an actual GP has become an exhausting obstacle course. Before you can even book, you must complete a lengthy online triage. Once you finally reach the booking stage, you are not told whether the appointment is with a pharmacist, nurse, or GP, nor are you given any choice. If you specifically need a doctor and end up being allocated someone else, your only option is to start the entire process again and hope for a different outcome. This is an absurd way to run a healthcare service.
Calling the practice is equally pointless. You can only speak to reception staff, who, in my experience, seem focused on redirecting you back to the online system rather than helping you access medical care. No matter the issue, the answer is almost always another link that sends you straight back to the same online triage, trapping you in an endless cycle with no resolution.
Communication has become almost impossible. The latest NHS App offers no practical way to message the practice, leaving patients with virtually no means of asking follow-up questions or seeking clarification after appointments or investigations.
There is also a complete lack of continuity of care. You never build a relationship with a GP, nobody appears to monitor your progress, and there is no meaningful follow-up after consultations or investigations. Every interaction feels isolated, as though your medical history begins from scratch each time.
My most recent experience has completely destroyed my confidence in this service. I had an online consultation, underwent blood tests, waited over a month for an ultrasound, and eventually managed to see a GP in person, who prescribed medication to relieve my symptoms. When my test results became available in the NHS App, I expected an opportunity to discuss them with a doctor and receive further advice because my symptoms were continuing to worsen.
Instead, all I received was a brief note stating that everything looked normal and that no further action was required.
That was it.
Despite my symptoms getting worse, I was given no opportunity to discuss the results with a GP, ask questions, or request a review of my treatment. I was effectively left to manage my own condition.
I found myself searching AI tools simply to understand how long I should take the medication that had been prescribed, because I could not obtain basic medical guidance from my own GP practice. I have since felt compelled to pay for a private specialist consultation because I am genuinely concerned that my condition could deteriorate while I wait for appropriate care.

Patients should never feel forced to rely on AI or internet searches simply because they cannot access their GP. Nor should they have to pay privately because the NHS service they are registered with is so difficult to access.
My confidence was further shaken by another incident involving a member of my household. A GP at Hand doctor prescribed medication at the wrong strength. Thankfully, the pharmacist identified the error before the medication was dispensed. Only after the mistake was challenged did another GP contact us and issue a corrected prescription. Had the pharmacist not intervened, the consequences could have been far more serious. That experience was deeply concerning.
In my experience, GP at Hand appears more focused on limiting access than providing patient-centred care. The barriers to speaking with a GP, the lack of continuity, the difficulty obtaining specialist referrals, and the inability to seek follow-up advice have left me feeling unsupported at a time when I most needed medical guidance.
I no longer feel safe relying on this service and have therefore decided to register with a traditional local GP practice instead.
I simply cannot recommend GP at Hand to anyone with an ongoing medical condition who needs consistent care, timely follow-up, and access to a doctor when their health changes.

They took me through rough times having to submit blood test because of their own continuous mistakes 4-5 times within a month! I’m diabetic and they were failing to check my blood test . I complained. Guess what? I received 30 pages of how my awful experience made them better! Now here we go again for another blood test round, let’s see how many times I will have to submit blood for one test!!! Stay away from them before you enter in their care with complex medical issues!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Exceptional Care and True Compassion!
I cannot thank Devi Boddu enough for the incredible care she provided. After having a terrible experience with a previous doctor, meeting Devi was a complete breath of fresh air. From the moment we spoke, she was incredibly kind, polite, and genuinely listened to all of my issues without rushing me.
Honestly, she felt like a caring mother figure. She has such a warm, comforting tone and straight away understood exactly what my problem was. To be truthful, she should be called a doctor because she gave me more thorough, caring advice than any GP I’ve ever spoken to at GP at Hand.
It is so rare to find someone in healthcare who listens with so much empathy and treats you like a human being. I never want to see a different clinician again. Thank you so much, Devi, for your outstanding support!

I had such a great experience with Rakshanda. She took my blood in one attempt, and I honestly didn't feel any pain at all. My veins are very difficult to find, so this is quite an achievement!

She was incredibly caring, gentle, and professional throughout the whole process. She made me feel completely at ease and took her time to ensure everything went smoothly. Her kindness and skill really stood out, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Thank you, Rakshanda, for your excellent care. You are a real credit to your team, and I truly appreciate how wonderful you were.

Incompetent GPs giving the wrong guidance to patients that could have resulted in me not getting the urgent care I needed resulting in serious complications. Fortunately I understood the guidelines better than the GP I spoke to and was able to advocate for myself but that should not be how patients are treated. Automated removals of repeat prescriptions for medications and equipment used for cronic health conditions with no communication at all. Repeated last minute cancellations of appointments without a rescheduled appointment being made are just a few of the very serious issues I have with GP at hand

Absolutely terrible service. Almost impossible to contact them. Communication is restricted in such a way that it seems deliberately engineered to discourage patients to get help. So many hoops to jump through; “smart triage” ie filling out forms and going through a multi step pipeline just to be able to reach a text field to send them a message - without even the option to add an attachment. You need to ask them to send you a link so you can send them back a response with an attachment. And it’s limited to one response. Additionally appointments get cancelled - sometimes without notice. I receive better service and quicker human engagement on Deliveroo. GP at Hand are an example of how not to deliver health services.

Absolutely zero ability to handle a process from start to finish. No accountability for any process, you only ever get a response of 'I can't do this, I can't do that'.

Completely inept.

It is like not having a GP. It is very difficult to get an appointment with a doctor. Moreover they cancelled all my repeated prescriptions from the previous practice. More aspects are disappointing. I tried it for three months, now I am changing practice.

They used to be good in 2021. Almost all the time I’m waiting for a doctor over a week that I end up having to self diagnose myself and treat the problems. The most useless GP service I’ve experienced. Definitely moving on now. It’s terrible

GP at hand used to be a good service, but it is now completely unfit for purpose and dangerous. Decisions are based entirely on somewhat arbitrary questionnaires. It is not possible to speak to someone on the phone when the outcome of the online booking is inappropriate you are either cut off and told to go back to online booking or only able to speak to someone without clinical knowledge. Serious incidents will no doubt occur from this.

terrible service, there is nothing smart about their smart triage, they seem to be doing a weight loss money grab, deprecated their GP app and when you call they cant help you with any bookings.

I am pregnant and asked for an urgent referral to rheumatologist to get vital treatment for an autoimmune condition which can cause my baby to have a congenital heart block. Only way to prevent this is to get that specific treatment. Awful doctor said I needed to wait for my 1st scan and confirm pregnancy so she can speed up the process. Luckily I booked another appointment and literally begged another doctor and finally had a quick referral. But some of these Emed doctors are so useless. They literally get paid to sit there, not listen to patients and put people in danger. On top of this, it is sometimes really hard to get appointments with GPs and they are all online.

This used to be absolutely brilliant, joined back in 2021 when they had a dedicated app for booking same day video call appointments.

Over the last couple years the service has gone completely downhill, there is no longer a dedicated app, you are instead expected to use the NHS app which is completely useless. The reason for joining this back in 2021 was due to the ease of use and simplicity in getting help or order repeat prescriptions.

Please DO NOT join this GP service as it will now be more complicated to get any help compared to a traditional GP.

Used to be great. Is now just as bad as the rest of the NHS.
I've been with gpathand for about 5 years after having AWFUL experiences with my local GP.
They used to have a seperate app. You would log in to the app, click book an appointment, select a time and press 'book'. Simple. Easy. Almost like it's 2026.
Now you have to go on the NHS app.
You cannot book an appointment with a GP if you don't have symptoms. As an ADHD patient that needs a SCA that means that I have to ask for an admin request. I, inevitably, then have to wait several days for a response. The response will, inevitably, request information I already gave in my initial request. I then have to wait for them to send me a link so that I can book an appointment with a GP. I then have to wait for my GP's appointment. I then have to have the appointment (last time it lasted 1 min, 16 seconds) only for the GP that I saw to pass it to another doctor so that THEY can approve my SCA. I then have to wait for the SCA to actually be put on the system.

This is not to mention that the last time a SCA was requested by my psychiatrist it wasn't acted on for five months.

I cannot see any of my test results on the NHS app. They do not give you an obvious contact number online and it would appear they only have receptionists at actual GP surgeries handling calls that used to go to a huge team in a call centre.

Basically, they got rid of the app and they got rid of their call centre because Babylon Health collapsed (because the NHS is an un-profitable mess) and was sold to eMed. eMed moved from the Babylon Health App (excellent) to their own eMed app (crap). They have now moved to the NHS app (almost unusable).