Is this the future of primary care?

[Simpo Two]

I was recently lucky enough to win a 10 minute appt with an NHS GP. However I wanted a second opinion so booked a 30 minute slot with a private GP. An interesting difference - instead of furiously typing while I talked, the conversation was recorded, and will be fed into AI for a response which the GP will check before sending on to me.

It makes me wonder how far away we are from cutting out the GP stage altogether, letting AI do all the work and maybe even prescriptions too. It would be prone to abuse of course, but so much cheaper than GPs on £100K a year so would save the NHS a fortune...

[beambeam1]

I suspect we aren't far off it already with AI agents being our first point of contact on the phone and diagnosing our symptoms during the initial triage process.

[The Leaper]

Our surgery ceased taking notes a while ago. All conversations between the GP and patient are recorded and can be replayed back via their PCs at anytime. The recorded conversation is also available in word form on the same PCs.

R.

[Terminator X]

A mate of mine is a GP. He says that whilst AI is used it takes the form of a 2nd opinion; the doctor will have his own view and check with colleagues and/or AI.

We all know that AI can spot trends in a million lines of code or data but I wouldn't want it making medical decisions with zero or little human input.

TX.

[jules_s]

Really?

The amount of times I've seen my GP regarding a condition/drugs I'm taking - my specific questions are almost always responded by the GP openly googling the specific question I'm asking.

As an example I recently had a BP check (which is annoyingly constantly high) - I pointed out a separate non BP related drug I'm on actually causes high BP

Frantic googling later - 'oh yes, that won't help'

I'm not moaning, I guess they cant know everything at the drop of a hat

[DukeDickson]

Simpo Two said:

I was recently lucky enough to win a 10 minute appt with an NHS GP. However I wanted a second opinion so booked a 30 minute slot with a private GP. An interesting difference - instead of furiously typing while I talked, the conversation was recorded, and will be fed into AI for a response which the GP will check before sending on to me.

It makes me wonder how far away we are from cutting out the GP stage altogether, letting AI do all the work and maybe even prescriptions too. It would be prone to abuse of course, but so much cheaper than GPs on £100K a year so would save the NHS a fortune...

Would you be happy to trust your health to something that is sycophantic by design, hallucinates and always will & is, in current LLM phase, which makes money burning something the NHS simply stand back in genuine amazement?

You can train quite a few Drs for the money being burned currently & there might be enough spare to chuck a coin or note at the radiologist begging outside your local supermarket .

It has it's uses and benefits, but there really does need to be a global slap across the chops around what is possible, how much that costs and where & how it can be useful.

[Countdown]

DukeDickson said:

Would you be happy to trust your health to something that is sycophantic by design, hallucinates and always will & is, in current LLM phase, which makes money burning something the NHS simply stand back in genuine amazement?

You can train quite a few Drs for the money being burned currently & there might be enough spare to chuck a coin or note at the radiologist begging outside your local supermarket .

It has it's uses and benefits, but there really does need to be a global slap across the chops around what is possible, how much that costs and where & how it can be useful.

Doctors aren’t perfect either, and we’re in the very very early stages of seeing what AI could be capable of. I’d be surprised if, in the next 50 years, it wasn’t taking the leading role in most aspects of medical care.

[gangzoom]

Simpo Two said:

I was recently lucky enough to win a 10 minute appt with an NHS GP. However I wanted a second opinion so booked a 30 minute slot with a private GP. An interesting difference - instead of furiously typing while I talked, the conversation was recorded, and will be fed into AI for a response which the GP will check before sending on to me.

It makes me wonder how far away we are from cutting out the GP stage altogether, letting AI do all the work and maybe even prescriptions too. It would be prone to abuse of course, but so much cheaper than GPs on £100K a year so would save the NHS a fortune...

The GP is however directing the questions the AI just making an transcript. AI integration into an Electronic Patient Record where it can also than prep investigation ordering and prescriptions will make the life of all doctors easier, but the technology isn't quite there yet.

For replacing direct human to human contact with AI is unlikely to happen for a long time. Even the AI gods all agree Medicine is one of the 'Safest' jobs to go into at present, and probably explains why despite all the strikes and gloom about the NHS Medical School competition ratios are higher than ever!!!

AI will improve medical care, it will improve productivity/reduce work load, it will not be able to replace the human aspect of empathy, reassurance, breaking bad (or good) news.

Oh most GP partners I know are far into the additional tax bracket .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessepines/2025/12/12...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ai...

Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 27th September 05:36

[Mirinjawbro]

I had doctors a few weeks ago due to ear popping and slight vertigo

2 mins to read my notes. Then another 2 typing into AI what I was answering and telling him

Have I been to Africa
It might be legionnaires disease

No.

Types away. I sit and wait.

Ear check. Nothing here.

Come back in a few weeks if it hasn't cleared

Ok thanks. Youve earnt your salary today

[Steve H]

There’s basically two questions to consider when asking AI something -

1. How reliable/accurate is the answer

2. How important is it that the answer isn’t wrong


Clearly the answer to question 2 is "pretty damn important" so when the answer to question 1 inevitably becomes "more reliable/accurate than a typical human GP", I suspect we can expect a huge increase in use of AI in all areas of medical care.

[Bill]

gangzoom said:

The GP is however directing the questions the AI just making an transcript. AI integration into an Electronic Patient Record where it can also than prep investigation ordering and prescriptions will make the life of all doctors easier, but the technology isn't quite there yet.

Is not going to happen any time soon. It would mean giving access to patient data to Google/Meta/the Chinese...

[Jamescrs]

jules_s said:

Really?

The amount of times I've seen my GP regarding a condition/drugs I'm taking - my specific questions are almost always responded by the GP openly googling the specific question I'm asking.

As an example I recently had a BP check (which is annoyingly constantly high) - I pointed out a separate non BP related drug I'm on actually causes high BP

Frantic googling later - 'oh yes, that won't help'

I'm not moaning, I guess they cant know everything at the drop of a hat

The GP doing that is understandable, I have done the same in my profession from time to time (not medical related) but you still have to have the background knowledge to know when what Google is giving you back is a load of rubbish or not.

[Bill]

Mirinjawbro said:

I had doctors a few weeks ago due to ear popping and slight vertigo

2 mins to read my notes. Then another 2 typing into AI what I was answering and telling him

Have I been to Africa
It might be legionnaires disease

No.

Types away. I sit and wait.

Ear check. Nothing here.

Come back in a few weeks if it hasn't cleared

Ok thanks. Youve earnt your salary today

Or typing notes... Not sure what else you expected TBH. You went with something minor that should sort itself out, the GP checked it was something minor rather than ear cancer or whatever and said it should sort itself out.

Has it?

[CrgT16]

I think as a tool yes it will help but ultimately the human brain is more advanced for certain nuances of medical care. Pure analysis a computer beats humans hands down but there is more to it.

GPs are highly skilled and trained individuals. The fact it’s free and the way the NHS works devalues the profession. There are a lot of excellent GPs in the UK but also some that are very bad as they don’t care because the money is guaranteed. The majority are excellent if you realise the job and the NHS constrains on their practice.

[gangzoom]

Bill said:

gangzoom said:

The GP is however directing the questions the AI just making an transcript. AI integration into an Electronic Patient Record where it can also than prep investigation ordering and prescriptions will make the life of all doctors easier, but the technology isn't quite there yet.

Is not going to happen any time soon. It would mean giving access to patient data to Google/Meta/the Chinese...

It’s already happening - Hence OPs post. It’s what’s I do as part of my day job. There is now a white-paper about it, the main issue at present is the lack of intraoperablity with existing digital records, however that is changing quickly.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/ai-knowledge-repos...

[Simpo Two]

The Leaper said:

Our surgery ceased taking notes a while ago. All conversations between the GP and patient are recorded and can be replayed back via their PCs at anytime. The recorded conversation is also available in word form on the same PCs.

The word form makes sense because it's far quicker to find a vital sentence visually in a document (also Ctrl/F) than spool through a 30 minute tape.

DukeDickson said:

Would you be happy to trust your health to something that is sycophantic by design, hallucinates and always will & is, in current LLM phase, which makes money burning something the NHS simply stand back in genuine amazement?

You can train quite a few Drs for the money being burned currently & there might be enough spare to chuck a coin or note at the radiologist begging outside your local supermarket .

It has it's uses and benefits, but there really does need to be a global slap across the chops around what is possible, how much that costs and where & how it can be useful.

I would expect medical AI to be as accurate and 'unemotional' as possible, not sycophantic like Copilot. The best answer is probably 'both', because AI can be wrong and so can GPs. Part of a GP's role is to conserve financial resources and work on probabilities. For example, there may be a 90% probability that your pain is trivial, so you get sent away with some pills. If it wasn't trivial, then by the time the NHS has cranked its way through the processes month by month, it might be too late. Even to get an appointment you can no longer phone in at 8.00am; in the name of progress you now have to get up at 7.30am, log into a 'portal' and spend 20 minutes typing into a multi-page form, then check your e-mail/texts constantly to see if you've won an appointment. God knows how the stupid and non-IT savvy manage.

I am of the opinion that a scan of the appropriate type should be much further up the list. That way you have the best chance of knowing exactly what you're dealing with much sooner, and many lives and/or pain/misery would be saved. Of course there aren't enough scanners to do that, so it would be an area for major investment.

In summary, there are too many people wanting/needing to many things and not enough money. But they couldn't have known that in 1947, and now as the country's coffers continue to drain I don't see how it's going to get any better.

[The Leaper]

Bill said:

Mirinjawbro said:

I had doctors a few weeks ago due to ear popping and slight vertigo

My wife had those issues a couple pf months ago and she was diagnosed with BPPV.....Google it.

R.

[Terminator X]

gangzoom said:

It s already happening - Hence OPs post. It s what s I do as part of my day job. There is now a white-paper about it, the main issue at present is the lack of intraoperablity with existing digital records, however that is changing quickly.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/ai-knowledge-repos...

Note to self, make sure I'm signed out of handing over my medical data.

TX.

[Bill]

gangzoom said:

It s already happening - Hence OPs post. It s what s I do as part of my day job. There is now a white-paper about it, the main issue at present is the lack of intraoperablity with existing digital records, however that is changing quickly.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/ai-knowledge-repos...

Fair enough, that's not how it sounds from the coalface.

[Countdown]

Terminator X said:

Note to self, make sure I'm signed out of handing over my medical data.

Apologies for going O/T but if handing over your medical data improved the quality of heathcare for everybody would you still opt out? What if you were paid for it?

Imagine the benefits of AI being able to aggregate millions of patients' data, identifying patterns, causes, and cures much more quickly.

What's the downside?