03.10.18
Advertising watchdog bans ‘misleading’ GP at Hand app for false promises and weeks-long waits
The advertising watchdog has banned a set of advertisements for a GP service smartphone application that promised NHS doctor appointments in “just minutes.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received several complaints about the ‘GP at Hand’ smartphone application—a service which allows users to check symptoms and receive diagnostics from free GP consultations via video-chat on smartphones.
In their ruling announced today, the ASA upheld complaints against the app— and the company behind the advertisements and app, Babylon Healthcare Services Ltd— that argued that the ads were misleading because they claimed app customers could “see an NHS GP in minutes,” when in reality it could take over a week to register.
The ASA also upheld complaints that the advertisements failed to make it clear that in order to use the services advertised, consumers must leave their current GP; and the app— including its in-person consultations— was only available to consumers who lived or worked in the catchment area of specific GP surgeries
“The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the claims in the ads that they would be able to receive the service of an NHS GP through the app. We noted that GP at Hand was a relatively new service and that other competing products operated in the private sector where consumers could use such services in addition to visiting their GP and without changing their GP,” the statement said.
“In that context, and in the absence of any information in the ads alongside the headline claims to explain that consumers must leave their current GP to use the service, we considered that consumers were likely to regard the service provided by GP at Hand as an additional service to supplement the service that they received from their current GP.”
‘Consumers could have to wait several days or even a week or more’
One ad in particular said that consumers could “sign up in 3 minutes,” however this was refuted by the advertising watchdog, claiming: “We noted that in the case of GP at Hand, consumers could have to wait several days or even a week or more before they were registered with the service and able to make use of it for the first time.
“We considered that, taken in full, consumers would understand from the ads that they would be able to quickly sign up and use the GP at Hand service. Because that was not always the case, we concluded that the ads were misleading.”
In its response, Babylon Healthcare said that the requirement that registered users would have to leave their current GP to sign up to their service was “flagged to website visitors several times” before signing up to the service.
Babylon also considered that the website was clear that users of their service would need to switch from their registered GP practice.
“GP at Hand responded that the claim ‘See an NHS GP in minutes’ was a description of the service, once potential customers had registered,” the statement said. “They considered that consumers would understand that it took time to register for a service, and that the claim would therefore apply to the service once it had been signed up for.”
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