Singapore experience

1. Register for AIA (non-trivial)
2. Install AIA app
3. Get referral from online GP (WhiteCoat?) - usually done within hour.
4. Download referral letter
5. Book consultant appointment and goto consultant, pay the consulant fee.
6. Get bill and put it through AIA app, together with the referral letter.
7. Get money back

The online GP will dispatch drugs to your home on the same day if needed.

BUPA experience

0. Register for BUPA (non-trivial)
1. Install the BUPA app

Spend days working out how to get an online GP appointment for a referral. It used to be called Babylon health and now it is called eMed Healthcare.

2. Install eMed Healthcare app
3. Register with eMed Healthcare (not the same as BUPA)
4. Book an appointment with an online doctor nurse (not the same day)
5. Get referral. Tbh I am still not sure how to download it.
6. Back to BUPA app, to try get authorisation for the referral.
7. After clicking a button, I am on a call center menu. 01706 335745. First menu asks me if I have a confirmed cancer diagnosis.
8. Navigate the menu and human asks for my membership number.
9. Clumsily navigate back to BUPA app to find membership number. (BUPA membership number is under Cover details)
10. Call center person also asks for my name and date of birth, and we continue. She then puts me through to member services IIUC.
11. Process repeats, asked for membership number, name, date of birth and my post code.
12. BUPA service person asks for details of the referal. She says she doesn’t have access to the referal (to my suprise). I now need to navigate to eMed to try read out the referral details.
13. She then puts me on hold to find consultants based on my postcode.
14. The closest consultants is sent by email. I am told to call the consultant to book an appointment.
15. Assuming I get an consultant appointment, she says I would need to call BUPA again to get authorisation for any work that needs to be done, and I would need to pay upto 250GBP for the consultation, since that is my excess for the policy.
16. I ask how come I couldn’t see the 250GBP access in the App and what is the point of the app, since I can’t do anything with it. She then suggests to put me through to the digital team to ask questions what the App is for.