Push Doctor
Push Doctor was the UK's first platform to offer video consultations with patients online and via smartphone. It is a GP provider and remote consultation enabler in the UK with a reach of 5.4 million patients. Push Doctor is a NHS-commissioned technology provider compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It made a loss of nearly £8 million in the year to 31 July 2021. It was acquired by Square Health, a provider of private digital healthcare for insurance companies and corporates, in December 2021. At that point it had about 100 staff. History The service was founded in July 2013 by Eren Ozagir and Matt Elcock. The idea came to Ozagir after falling ill on a business trip to Baltimore in the United States. Push Doctor initially received $1.2 million in seed funding and in mid-2015 a nationwide television campaign aired to promote the service. In January 2016, Push Doctor raised $8.2m Series A funding lead by Oxford Capital, Draper Esprit and Partech Ventures. Reports suggest the investment would be used to "strengthen brand position, carry out further product innovations, expand the management structure, including making key marketing and product hires". In September 2016, the service underwent a rebrand that included a new logo, revamped website, an updated iOS app and a new Android app. In October 2016, SuperGroup chief operating officer Susanne Given joined the company as the non-executive chair. In July 2017, Push Doctor raised a further $26.1m in Series B funding, taking the company's total funding to $37.5m. In August 2017, Push Doctor introduced a £500 medical student grant, which is open to medical students at any UK university from their second year onwards. Ozagir said the move would "help the next generation of home-grown doctors get off to the best possible start." In August 2018, Eren Ozagir stepped down as CEO of Push Doctor but remains a shareholder." In June 2017, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found Push Doctor to be providing caring and responsive service, that fell short in areas of safety, effectiveness and leadership. The Commission suggested that Push Doctor were prescribing high-risk medicines to patients without performing essential checks, and in one case had prescribed a medication for a use beyond its stated license. Then-CEO Eren Ozagir claimed that there were factual inaccuracies in the CQC report, and that the guidelines against which the inspection took place were completely new. In November 2017, the company failed a CQC inspection due to inadequate checks of users' ages and identities – which was then corrected in time for the August 2018 inspection, wherein the company was found to be overprescribing antibiotics. The Modality Partnership started to offer online consultations using Push Doctor to more than 99,000 patients across six of the Modality practices in September 2018. If this is successful, it will be extended to all of their 400,000 patients. In January 2021, Push Doctor was selected as the digital partner for GP practices in west London, supported by Hounslow and Richmond