Help@hand 17+

Yesterday, my GP diagnosed I have a rotator cuff injury; an appointment with a NHS physiotherapist would have been weeks away. However, with Help@hand I was able to get an immediate appointment with a very knowledgable physiotherapist. Our half hour video call was thorough and really helpful. I now have a set of exercises to aid my recovery, as well as wisdom to progress gradually, so as not to exacerbate it.

I am a POC and I had one councillor who was white and she was compassionate but friends said talk to a person of colour as you will be understood better regarding the issue at hand, unfortunately that was opposite of what happened. the second one I had who was also a POC they didn’t seem to have any empathy, I don’t kno why they were smiling it just felt uncomfortable. Then when I had a issue with something They said they dismissed my experience by saying well i work with lots of people from where you work. As if she knows where I work better then myself despite being there for years. It’s like I don’t even feel comfortable going back on this app because clearly it’s not confidential if you are making me feel like you are aware of where I work and the dynamics at play and unwilling to hear me out. So there wasn’t any empathy to see through my eyes and this proved more stressful. I had a session outside of this app with a Psycologist and it was like night and day comparison. Where I felt like I got so much more out of it. 30 mins doesn’t feel like much time at all and lacks any ability to offer any organic conversations to open up with. I just don’t feel like I can come back in this app.

They don’t allow you to give feedback on this app to any of the people you have spoken to. The review after the session is just so basic and doesn’t really help at all

This App is less than ideal. It doesn’t remember your log in details and appears to just be a basic web app. Considering the money they charge people to be a member you’d think they’d invest a bit more.

Compared to their competition I’ve found that you have to allow a lot more time to be able to speak with a GP. For example when I tried to make a booking at noon the earliest appointment was 9 hours later. For a competitor that I was with last year the average wait was just 3 hours…

Overall the service works and they are a bit cheaper than the aforementioned competition, but it does show.