Doctor Care Anywhere sign deal with AXA PPP healthcare
Doctor Care Anywhere sign deal with AXA PPP healthcare

AXA PPP healthcare is to roll-out video GP and digital healthcare services to its corporate clients.

The service is to be delivered by CQC-registered Doctor Care Anywhere who have been getting rave reviews from the likes of Mumsnet. The current service to consumers isn’t cheap with a charge of £50 for a one off appointment although you can get unlimited appointments for just £10 per month if you sign up for a year.

What this means is that this is a fully tested and more importantly secure service that AXA PPP healthcare is now taking to its corporate clients. Many companies already provide some access to private healthcare to their key workers and this service offers a potential to extend that to smaller companies as well as a wider range of workers and even their families.

Security central to the platform

Video sessions are encrypted using SSL and it is designed to work with a range of video cameras connected to a computer, phone or tablet. According to a response from AXA PPP Healthcare, the typical resolution of the video feed is around 720p. This is something that should be good enough for most doctors to deliver a reasonable assessment of minor injuries.

More importantly it is something that can be easily streamed across a mobile network. As a result it should be easy to connect to a doctor and get a first opinion without having to move a patient. For field engineers or those who work in hostile environments such as steel workers or dockyards, this is important and will give them an alternative to calling 999 for injuries that could be easily diagnosed over a mobile link.

Users get access to a 2-factor authentication process that ensures that any medical data is only released to someone with the right credentials. This will be important for employees who will not want colleagues or even their line managers knowing what illnesses they are suffering from.

The platform is hosted on Skyscape who are one of the leading data centre providers to the UK Government G-Cloud and who have contracts with both central and local government departments. All of the Skyscape data centres have achieved the pan Government IL3 security accreditation meaning that they are suitable for storing data classified up to Secret.

According to the press release, later this year Doctor Care Anywhere will also add a prescription management service to their offering.

Kate Newhouse, CEO Doctor Care Anywhere
Kate Newhouse, CEO Doctor Care Anywhere

Kate Newhouse, CEO of Doctor Care Anywhere, said: “Our provision of the Doctor@Hand service to AXA PPP’s corporate clients is a game-changing win for us, enabling us to reach hundreds of thousands more customers.

“We believe that our online video GP consultations service will result in a shift in the industry towards better access to healthcare driven by latest technologies. We see a future, where obtaining fast, high quality medical care and advice using your smartphone, tablet or laptop will be commonplace. And that future is here today, for AXA PPP clients.”

Conclusion

While the UK is no longer considered the sick man of Europe, days off due to illness are still a major drain on the UK economy. For small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) sick days have a disproportionate impact on their finances as they often have to pay for expensive temporary staff.

By providing this service for their staff they can hopefully reduce the sick time lost while staff wait for an appointment with their own doctor and the cost of the service should be easily recovered in not having to take on temporary staff to cover sick workers.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here