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- Irish Life Health to offer customers next-day access to an in-person GP appointment across one of 50 Centric Health clinics nationwide
- In-person appointments build on the introduction of 24/7 digital access to Irish-based GPs
Irish Life Health today announced the expansion of its Digital Doctor service, introducing next day access to in-person GP appointments at 50 Centric Health centres across Ireland. This service is available on all hospital plans when required post a Digital Doctor consultation.
Irish Life Health moved its Digital Doctor service to Centric Health in June 2022, meaning its customers have had unlimited and timely 24/7 access to Irish-based GPs by phone or video call. Since introducing the enhanced service, Irish Life Health has seen a 32% increase1 in usage of the digital doctor service.
To date, our experience is that over 90% of digital doctor consultations resolve the issue, however for the less than 10% where this isn’t possible2, a rapid follow up in-person GP appointment is required. This expansion of the service means that when a customer’s issue cannot be resolved through their digital GP appointment, they will be offered next-day access to an in-person appointment with a GP across one of 50 Centric Health clinics nationwide.
This service is of particular importance to patients who aren’t registered with a local GP, as it allows them to access one of 50 GP practices nationwide for in-person care.
In addition, this development in primary healthcare provision will provide timely access to quality care in the community, ensuring that Irish Life Health customers have easy access to the right care closer to home when they need it.
Speaking about the new in-person GP appointments, Ger Davis, Irish Life Health Managing Director said:
“At Irish Life Health, we believe that regular access to high-quality primary care is critical for customers in proactively managing their health. GPs are the gatekeepers to the health care system as well as being trusted advisers for patients. We are delighted to launch this market-leading primary care service, integrating our Digital Doctor service supported by rapid in-person consultation follow ups.
We have seen a significant increase in take-up of the Digital Doctor service in the last year, reflecting the quality of the service and also the challenges of arranging physical GP appointments. We know from our over 500,000 customers that convenience and timely access to medical advice are key, so the Digital Doctor service and personalised healthcare is a priority for them. However, not all issues can be solved over the phone, and as convenience is a vital part of healthcare, providing our customers access to 50 Centric Health centres nationwide is a natural next step.
This new service enhances our health insurance offering which already gives our customers access to an excellent network of best in class diagnostic and urgent care centres as well as access to health care in the home. For example, ourcustomers have access to specialised nurses treating patients for certain conditions at home, rather than in a hospital setting. In 2022 alone our customers avoided spending the night in hospital on over 4,700 occasions through the use of this service, freeing up hospital beds for other patients in need.”
1 32% increase in Digital Doctor services is based on Irish Life Health usage data comparing volume of 2022 digital doctor appointments against 2021 volumes of digital doctor appointments
2 Based on appointments from August – December 2022. Source: Centric Health
NOTES
- The new service will be available to Irish Life Health customers on all hospital plans.
- In-person appointments are subject to availability of service and individual clinic opening hours. Services are not available on weekends and bank holidays.
- You must pay the Centric Health GP in full for the consultation. If you have GP cover on your plan, you may be able to claim back all or part of the cost by uploading your receipt on your online account. Please check your table of cover to see what’s covered.
- Number of customers avoided spending the night in hospital in 2022: Source: Irish Life Health report on health in the home usage in 2022.
Irish Life is one of Ireland’s leading financial services groups, now taking care of over 1.5 million customers*. We help people to confidently prepare for and embrace life’s changes with our wide range of health, life, pension, and investment solutions.
We are part of the Great-West Lifeco group of companies, one of the world’s leading life assurance organisations. Great-West Lifeco and its subsidiaries have over CAD$2.5 trillion in consolidated assets under administration** and are members of the Power Financial Corporation group of companies.
Irish Life delivers innovative solutions for personal and corporate customers, backed by the highest standards of service. And as part of Great-West Lifeco, we have access to experience and expertise on a global scale, so we can continuously enhance our leading range of services and solutions.
**Source: Great-West Life Co Annual Report 2022