The CEO of an ‘Amazon for care’ platform聽has called for聽the NHS聽to be more open to cutting-edge聽solutions like WeMa.
Lavanya Plus鈥檚 new service WeMa Life brings together a range of health, social care and wellbeing services in one place. Users can book multiple services at a time from a massage to a gardener, companion or nutritionist.
WeMa Life co-founder聽Rohit Patni聽says the health service needs to be less restrictive.
鈥淭hey keep saying ‘yes, we want to empower people’ – but they聽aren鈥檛 delivering a solution,鈥� he told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淚 hope that鈥檚 where we can start to fill a gap and they鈥檒l begin to recognise players like ourselves who will make a change for the customer.鈥�
The site will cover the UK and India at first and is planned to launch formally this month.
Patni聽said聽the platform is set up to disrupt the outdated platforms that aren鈥檛 compatible with mobile apps and don鈥檛 offer integrated payment options.
鈥淚 compare it to Amazon for care,鈥� he said. 鈥淥n Amazon you can buy multiple products from multiple suppliers. We鈥檙e not selling products, but services.
“You can go online to book a social care worker at the time you want through the company you choose. Then you can continue shopping and book a physio from a different provider and a nutritionist from a third.
鈥淚f that鈥檚 拢100 in total our platform accepts it as a single transaction and then segregates all the funds to the appropriate service providers minus a commission charge.鈥�
All services on the site are fully vetted and the platform also offers a 鈥榝riends and family鈥� feature for the older generation who aren鈥檛 as tech savvy.
鈥淭hey maybe don鈥檛 understand how to use their mobile and want their son to look after them,鈥� said Patni. 鈥淢aybe they鈥檙e living in India and their son lives in London. He can now remotely book and manage services and pay for them for his father.
鈥淲e see this as a short-term issue though because those people who aren鈥檛 familiar with tech unfortunately won鈥檛 be with us much longer.
鈥淓ven as people in their early 50s get older they will be totally familiar with technology and the younger generation can鈥檛 live without it.鈥�
The company also provides scannable QR codes so that providers can log in and out when they arrive at the user’s聽home, along with alert buttons for both clients and providers in case anything happens.
鈥淭his way I know that it鈥檚 the right person who鈥檚 turned up to my door and if they arrive five minutes late it鈥檚 all logged,鈥� he said.
鈥淎fterwards they scan out and do a visit report, I do one too, and we can rate each other which means people know they can trust that provider.
鈥淲e鈥檝e also got to protect the service provider and don鈥檛 want to send them to someone who hasn鈥檛 been risk assessed. It鈥檚 a two-way street.鈥�
WeMa services will mainly be provided as a SaaS (Software as a Service) model 鈥� providers will be charged a monthly SaaS fee for using the platform plus a transaction fee as the platform should help them get more clients, says Patni. The clients won鈥檛 be charged to use the service.