{"id":856541,"date":"2026-08-13T11:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/856541\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:54:20","slug":"one-in-seven-are-using-ai-instead-of-a-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/856541\/","title":{"rendered":"One in seven are using AI instead of a GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tRather than discussing whether AI should be used for health advice, all efforts should focus on ensuring the information given is accurate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One in seven people in the UK have used AI for health advice instead of contacting a GP, according to a new study. The research<\/a>, by King\u2019s College London, also found that one in five people who sought health advice from a chatbot said it did not encourage them to seek a professional opinion.<\/p>\n

The findings, one healthcare technology leader said, show that debates about whether patients should use AI at all are now \u201cfutile\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the focus should be on ensuring the information powering AI is accurate and trustworthy, said Stephanie Eltz, a former NHS surgeon and chief executive of healthcare platform Doctify.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cinfrastructure and information\u201d needed to generate responses without compromising safety must be prioritised, Eltz added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her comments come as OpenAI reports<\/a> that health-related queries account for around five per cent of all chatbot conversations globally, with one in four of ChatGPT\u2019s 800 million regular users submitting a health prompt every week.<\/p>\n

Doctify, which allows patients to search for and review healthcare providers, has seen a 680% year-on-year increase in traffic arriving on its platform directly from AI-generated searches.<\/p>\n

This reflects a shift away from traditional search engines, as patients increasingly use conversational AI to explore symptoms, treatments and healthcare providers.<\/p>\n

Eltz said the technology industry must ensure AI systems rely on verified, evidence-based information rather than unverified online content, while also guiding and encouraging patients to see a doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s College researchers said the growing use of AI for health advice underlines the need to ensure people continue to access professional medical care when it is needed.<\/p>\n

The study<\/a> was conducted by King\u2019s Health Partners, Responsible AI UK and the Policy Institute at King\u2019s College London. The findings are based on answers from a survey of nearly 2,100 adults, which took place in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most common reasons people gave for using AI chatbots for health advice were convenience, curiosity and uncertainty about whether their concern was serious enough to contact a GP. A quarter said they did so because they were waiting too long for NHS services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rather than discussing whether AI should be used for health advice, all efforts should focus on ensuring the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-856541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}