As the NHS unveils its latest proposal for the future of healthcare, Doctor Care Anywhere is already delivering the digital-first solutions to help make it a reality.
In early July, the NHS shared its bold new vision for transforming the future of healthcare in England with a 10-year health plan: ‘Fit for the Future’.
This plan is a vital move from the UK’s national healthcare service as millions of patients face lengthy delays for accessing GP or dental appointments and life-changing hospital treatments, while NHS ‘staff are demoralised’ and ‘outcomes on major killers like cancer lag behind other countries’.
In a bid to modernise its operations and become more sustainable going forward, the NHS has set out three radical shifts in priority – including moving from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
As a trusted virtual healthcare provider for more than three million British patients and 1,500 businesses nationwide, such as AXA Health, Meta and Mercedes-Benz, Doctor Care Anywhere (DCA)’s services are in a prime position to support the NHS’ goals and can help make its vision a reality.
“At DCA, we are committed to providing fast access to high quality digital care, with great patient outcomes and a seamless virtual experience. This enables people to get the care they need, from the right clinician, at the right time.”
-Dr Anushka Mehrotra (Chief Medical Officer)
From clinician-led care and increasing access to appointments through pioneering technology DCA’s patient-centric care model is proving to be an efficient and welcome solution to many of the NHS’ current challenges. Read on as we share seven ways DCA backs the NHS 10-year health plan.
1. Improve digital access and equity
With the NHS keen to move ‘from bricks to clicks’, ensuring digital health equity and expanding the reach of virtual GP services are essential.
DCA is helping bridge this divide by:
- Quick, easy access to primary care via our app, website and over the phone –including appointments with GPs, physiotherapists, mental health practitioners and advanced clinical practitioners.
- Multilingual support via our translation service, accessibility for hearing via Relay UK and manual booking via telephone through our dedicated Patient Experience team for visually-impaired patients.
- Allowing patients to choose a doctor based on personal preference or expertise.
- Partnering with employers and insurers across diverse sectors and geographies, extending access to virtual GP services in isolated or underserved areas.
We want to ensure that virtual healthcare positively impacts all our patients, so accessibility and inclusion remain a key priority for us.
2. Integration with NHS services
Another NHS ambition is to launch a community-based health service to ‘put power in patients’ hands’, delivering convenient care at a time and place that fits around their busy lives – including at home and on high streets, rather than demanding they attend appointments in a way that has been organised by the NHS.
To help drive this reform, better integration across services such as the NHS App, NHS 111 and local Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) is required.
At DCA, we integrate our patient records with NHS services. After a patient has had an appointment with one of our GPs, the notes are shared with NHS GP via API, provided the patient has consented – coordinating care and removing the need for patients to repeat themselves to numerous professionals.
3. 24/7 online GP appointments
By embracing the digital revolution and providing patients with ‘a doctor in their pocket’ through the NHS App, the NHS hopes to relieve many of the common burdens placed on its workforce, such as administration, staff shortages, lack of funding and limited time for assessing patients’ needs through traditional GP consultations.
Instant advice for non-urgent care and continuous monitoring, alongside the ability to manage medicines or book tests directly via the app, would ensure rapid access for patients in generally good health, free up physical access for those with the most complex needs and ensure the NHS’ financial sustainability for future generations.
At Doctor Care Anywhere, we’re one step ahead. Our app is already achieving these aims,
- Offering same-day online GP appointments (including evenings, weekends and at Christmas), within two hours – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
- DCA patients can also use the app to access appointments both during their 9 to 5 and out-of-hours, avoiding the ‘8am scramble’ to book consultations through the NHS.
- Appointments with Physiotherapists, mental health practitioners without requiring a referral.
- One central place for records, prescriptions, referrals, and fit notes.
While currently private, we are open to future NHS integration. Our app is already a front door to services including GP, mental health, and musculoskeletal care, and we are expanding into prevention and self-care support.
“My doctor was fantastic – a great listener, straight to the point, knowledgeable and clearly wanted to help. I hope I can choose her next time!” — DCA Patient
4. Empower patients through prevention
With rates of obesity, harmful alcohol consumption, vape addiction and mental health challenges in young people on the rise, the NHS seeks to shift its priority from sickness to prevention and encourage patients to make healthier choices.
The NHS’ 10-year health plan states: ‘Our overall goal is to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, while increasing it for everyone, and to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. This will boost our health, but also ensure the future sustainability of the NHS and support economic growth.’
As well as requiring access to modern tools, this goal demands early interventions. DCA supports the NHS to deliver by offering:
- Educational content, including via our blog and social media platforms.
- Self-management tools, such as the My Health wellbeing tool and digital supported exercise programmes.
- Comprehensive health checks, supporting patient wellbeing and identifying risks early to keep them healthy.
- Remote health checks, including blood testing, which can lead into personalised care options, including mental health, msk, women's health, men's health, skin health..
- Personalised end-to-end care plans for patients.
By detecting health issues early, we aim to improve outcomes and reduce avoidable hospital admissions and keep people healthier for longer.
5. Reduce pressure on the NHS and relieve GP burnout
Unfortunately, staff shortages in the NHS and bureaucracy currently pose significant challenges. Seven out of 10 NHS workers in patient-facing roles (69%) say limited capacity regularly impacts the quality of care provided, 70% say they’re taking on more than their usual workload to compensate, and 73% say they experience burnout or exhaustion at least some of the time – including 27% who feel this way ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’.
At DCA, we help reduce the burden by:
- Quickly connecting patients with appropriate clinicians.
- Managing surges during weekends and holidays.
- Offering flexible remote roles to retain NHS-trained GPs. - supporting staff wellbeing.
“What drew me to DCA is the way we approach care. It’s thoughtful, inclusive, and built around how people actually live. We don’t just talk about flexible, patient-centred care. We design for it, measure it, and keep improving it.”
— Hannah Lines, Advanced Clinical Practitioner Service Lead
6. Leverage AI from triage to follow-up care
The NHS’ 10-year health plan for England outlines its aspirations to move away from analogue and be ‘the most artificial-intelligence-enabled care system in the world’ Our digital platform makes it easy for clinicians to access patient information to aid clinical decision making and enables doctors to create bespoke treatment plans – from the very first consultation a patient makes with a GP, to receiving an appropriate diagnosis and a referral or advanced clinical care.
In future, technological innovations such as wearables could help us to promote patient safety and encourage early disease detection through continuous healthcare monitoring. We are also actively looking at integrated ambient AI scribes as a tool to help clinicians.
“At DCA, we’re developing a range of clinical pathways by integrating digital tools that support clinicians in delivering outstanding care and improving patient outcomes remotely. We focus on prevention—including remote checks and personalised advice to support long-term wellbeing.”
— Dr Anushka Mehrotra, Chief Medical Officer
7. Measure what matters
With the NHS’ value-based care model rewarding high-quality, efficient healthcare providers, at DCA we believe it’s crucial to measure what matters the most as well as track patient outcomes to continuously improve our services.
We assess our impact using the following data-led metrics:
- Patient experience: including activation and return rates, patient feedback and satisfaction scores (NPS), and the speed and ease of booking appointments.
- Clinical effectiveness and quality: conducting regular audits on all aspects of care (such as prescribing practices), consultation length and referral rates, and patient outcomes.
- Operational efficiency: using real-time data analytics to monitor service levels and call handling times as well as optimising resource allocation.
- Financial performance: including revenue and profitability as well as cost efficiency.
- Continuous improvement: investing in training and development programmes for clinicians and staff.
The road ahead
As the UK’s healthcare ecosystem evolves, our expert team at Doctor Care Anywhere see ourselves as a strategic ally to the NHS, with over a decade of experience in digital health, including delivering online GP appointments.
Through ongoing collaboration with public health bodies, local councils, third-sector organisations and our growing portfolio of business partners, we’re able to deliver a digital-first primary care model that increases access for patients nationwide, reduces inequality and improves health outcomes.
The NHS’ 10-year health plan, ‘Fit for the Future’, is a direct call to action – and here at DCA, we’re ready to answer. For a faster and fairer healthcare system that puts patients’ needs first, virtual healthcare providers aren’t just a nice-to-have, they’re essential.
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