The Outpatient Problem... | Tom Whicher, CEO of DrDoctor

This week on HealthTech Hour, Steve sits down with Tom Whicher, CEO and Co-founder of DrDoctor, who has spent 13 years building one of the UK's most impactful health tech companies — and is now taking it head-on into the era of agentic AI. Tom started DrDoctor in 2012 after a stint peeling onions for Domino's Pizza as a naval architect turned process engineer. A chance NHS project changed everything — he saw the frustration of patients turning up with paper letters and missed appointments, and set out to fix outpatient care. 13 years later, DrDoctor has powered nearly 200 million NHS appointments for 37 million patients, become the single biggest supplier of data into the NHS App, and delivered over £150 million in NHS savings as a certified B Corp. Tom is particularly passionate about why outpatients as we know them shouldn't exist — and we get into what that means in practice. Why the NHS has been asking patients to sit and wait to see a doctor since Guy's Hospital was founded, why 40% of outpatient activity could be delivered at home, and how DrDoctor's new agentic voice tool lets patients speak to an AI agent that can actually action changes to their appointments, not just look them up. We also explore why NHS England has quietly pivoted from digitisation to optimisation, why EPRs alone don't deliver the savings the NHS was promised, and why every CEO of a software business needs to embrace agentic AI or fall behind. Tom also opens up about the uncomfortable paradox at the heart of UK health tech — that as scaled companies succeed with the NHS, they can start being viewed with suspicion rather than trusted as real partners. Outside of work, Tom is an engineer at heart who found his way into healthcare through curiosity, not credentials. A grounded, practical conversation with one of the UK's longest-serving health tech CEOs — and a rare insider view of what actually needs to change to make the NHS fit for the future. Follow HealthTech Hour for more conversations with the founders, operators and builders shaping the future of UK health and tech. HealthTech Hour Socials: https://linktr.ee/healthtechhour 00:00 The Future of Healthcare 02:15 From naval architecture to health tech 06:30 The orange form and box of roses story 12:00 Why outpatients shouldn't exist in 2026 16:30 Being thrown out of a CIO's office in 2012 20:00 How DrDoctor powers the NHS App 25:00 The agentic AI tool that changes hospital appointments 29:00 Why EPRs don't save the NHS money 37:30 Why success can make you the enemy in UK health tech 41:00 What every CEO should do about agentic AI 47:30 Learning from the king of milk