GP at Hand adverts were misleading to patients, watchdog rules

The UK’s advertising watchdog has ruled that GP at Hand can no longer use adverts that don’t make it clear to patients that they must deregister from their current practice to use the service.

The ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) came after eight complainants, including a GP, challenged whether the adverts were misleading.1

GP at Hand, run by an NHS general practice in Hammersmith in partnership with the technology company Babylon, offers patients GP consultations 24/7 on their smartphone or in person at five clinics in London. To use the service, patients are required to deregister with their existing GP.

In March, GPs in Hackney, London, warned that some of their patients had signed up for the service without realising that this deregistered them from their local surgery. …