AskFirst (formerly Ask NHS‪)‬ 12+

It would appear that we are no longer able to book a gp face to face without a mini interrogation. We cannot get through to the surgery without loads of recordings and number options. After a long wait never any available appointments or indeed any doctors available so the only hope of ever getting an appointment or medical advice is Ask First. If you are lucky enough to be able to get a face to face appointment usually for a couple of weeks time. Now being offered pharmacy consultations to decide who gets an appointment.

This app works great for me, and I’m very appreciative of the new mental health section. Not every service is compatible with me (i.e. they just give me their phone number to call) but there’s definitely more access than there used to be.
I wanted to review though because, like some others have mentioned, I was disappointed by the stereotyping of the virtual assistants that you can now choose. Another reviewer interpreted this as ‘nurses are all women’ - which I hadn’t considered - but to me it jumps out as ‘assistants/secretaries are all/should be women’, since this has been a widespread trend across “assistant” bots and AI. It doesn’t impact how useful the app is, but is definitely disappointing, especially considering their obvious attempt to diversify the “face” of the app. It just needs a little more effort from them to shake off all of Original Olivia’s shortcomings (if a human-like assistant is needed at all.)

Tried this app after being prompted by surgery website. Ran through cramp and found several flaws: cannot input multiple episodes over several weeks nor detail effect on quality of life despite these being featured on NHS website. At end when avatar asked if I wanted link to further info pressed yes & got directed to stomach ache. Pretty poor effort.
Perhaps it copes better with other conditions?
What really finished it off was the lazy & blatant stereotyping of health professionals. All the avatars were female &, despite trying several fairly awful attempts at age or ethnic variations, they all have the same middle class southern accent! Creepy but at least it disappears into a small box if you mute it.
I have known many excellent nurses & doctors of both genders & multiple ethnicities & this app seems to be saying that only women are nurses. Surely a random selection of avatar gender/ethnic background/age would more accurately reflect the NHS. Shame on you Senseley