Richard Eltringham and Barbara Riddell point to the decline in general practice as the reason why people are turning to AI for health advice. Plus a letter from Dr Katie Baker
Your report (One in seven in UK prefer consulting AI chatbots to seeing doctor, study finds, 13 May) will no doubt be greeted with the usual hand‑wringing about the decline of human connection in healthcare. But the more honest explanation is far simpler: many of us no longer see our registered doctor in any meaningful sense.
Continuity of care has quietly evaporated. General practice has become a rotating cast of locums, telephone triage and “someone will call you back at some point between 8am and the heat death of the universe”. The idea of a named GP – someone who knows your history, your face – has become NHS folklore, spoken of wistfully but rarely encountered in the wild.
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