Anyone who’s tried to get a GP appointment lately knows the struggle is real. You call at 8 AM sharp, get put on hold for twenty minutes, only to be told the next available slot is three weeks away. Meanwhile, you’re sitting there wondering if that persistent cough is something serious or just a lingering cold.
This is exactly the kind of frustration that led us at Nort Labs to develop GP Mode—a new feature in our MEDi platform that’s honestly making us rethink how the whole healthcare system could work better.
The Reality Check: Why Everything Feels Broken
Let’s be honest about what’s happening in healthcare right now. The NHS is stretched thin, private healthcare is expensive, and everyone seems to be waiting longer for everything. Doctors are burning out because they’re drowning in paperwork instead of actually helping patients. And patients? They’re getting more frustrated by the day.
I was talking to a GP friend recently, and she told me she spends almost half her consultation time just figuring out what’s actually wrong—asking the same basic questions, typing notes, trying to piece together a patient’s history. “I became a doctor to help people,” she said, “not to be a data entry clerk.”
That conversation really stuck with me, because it perfectly captures what GP Mode is trying to solve.
What GP Mode Actually Does
Think of GP Mode as having a really smart medical assistant who talks to you before you see the doctor. But instead of just filling out forms, you’re having an actual conversation about what’s bothering you.
Here’s how it works: You open up MEDi and start chatting with the AI about your symptoms. It’s not like those frustrating symptom checkers that always tell you you’re dying—this actually feels like talking to someone who knows what they’re doing. The AI asks follow-up questions, understands context, and gradually builds a complete picture of what’s going on.
Maybe you mention that headache you’ve been having, and it asks about when it started, what makes it worse, whether you’ve been stressed lately, if you’ve changed anything in your routine. It’s the kind of thorough conversation you wish you could have with your actual doctor, but rarely get time for.
Once you’re done talking, something pretty cool happens. The AI takes everything you’ve discussed and creates a proper medical summary—the kind doctors actually want to read. It includes your symptoms, timeline, medical history, medications, and even suggests what might be going on and what tests or treatments might make sense.
Then comes the best part: you can choose whether to send this summary to an NHS GP or book with a private doctor through the platform. Either way, when you finally get that appointment, the doctor already knows your story.
Why This Actually Matters for Patients
The obvious benefit is that you’re not waiting around as long. When doctors can see more patients because they’re not spending half the appointment gathering basic information, wait times naturally get shorter.
But there’s something even better happening here. When you finally sit down with your doctor, you’re not starting from scratch. No more rushing through your symptoms because you only have ten minutes. No more forgetting to mention that important detail because you’re nervous. The doctor has already read your story and can focus on the parts that really matter—figuring out what’s wrong and how to fix it.
I’ve heard from users who say their appointments now feel more like actual conversations with their doctors instead of rushed interrogations. That’s exactly what we were hoping for.
What Doctors Think About This
Initially, I’ll admit, some doctors were skeptical. There’s this fear that AI is going to replace them, which I totally understand. But that’s not what this is about at all.
The doctors who’ve started using GP Mode tell us it’s actually made their jobs more enjoyable. They’re spending less time on administrative stuff and more time doing what they trained for—making diagnoses, explaining treatments, and actually connecting with patients.
One GP told me that GP Mode summaries are often more thorough than what she used to get from traditional intake forms. Patients tend to be more honest and detailed when they’re talking to the AI, probably because there’s less pressure and more time to think.
Plus, having everything documented properly means better continuity of care. When you see a different doctor next time, they can actually understand your history instead of starting over.
The Bigger Picture
What excites me most about GP Mode isn’t just that it makes individual appointments better—it’s that it could actually help fix some of the systemic problems in healthcare.
Think about it: if every doctor can see more patients without sacrificing quality, wait times drop across the board. If consultations are more efficient, costs go down. If patients get better care, health outcomes improve. It’s one of those rare win-win-win situations.
And this could be especially transformative in places where healthcare access is limited. Rural areas, underserved communities, countries with doctor shortages—GP Mode could help stretch existing resources much further.
Where We're Heading
We’re not trying to replace doctors or turn healthcare into some soulless tech experience. The goal is to make the human parts of healthcare more human by letting technology handle the routine stuff.
GP Mode is just the beginning. As we add more languages, integrate with wearable devices, and expand to different healthcare systems, we’re seeing how this approach could work everywhere from busy London practices to remote clinics in developing countries.
The future of healthcare isn’t about choosing between human doctors and AI—it’s about using both together to create something better than either could achieve alone. GP Mode is our first real step toward making that future a reality.
At the end of the day, everyone deserves access to good healthcare without jumping through hoops or waiting weeks for basic care. That’s what we’re working toward, one conversation at a time.
