General & Medical Reviews

I took out a policy with General and Medical as the approved scheme through my work (University), having not had private medical insurance before. This seemed a good policy and also covers my two children. The initial consultation was easy and a face to face visit at my workplace. The policy seemed reasonably priced for my age (mid-fifties) and gave peace of mind. Thankfully I have not needed to use it yet, but regular email news updates and access to my account on the website make it easy to administer. The coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic was reassuring with constant email updates on hospitalisation and 24hr GP online consultation. So far I have no complaints or issues with the healthcare provision.

My daughter deals with General & Medical on my behalf and she always informs me that the staff are very polite and helpful. Whenever she called she did not have to spend ages for someone to respond. I am therefore very satisfied with the service.

I moved to General & Medical after being with BUPA for over 10 years, and I have been very pleased with the customer care/ promptness of response and general efficiency. Although I was hesitant in the beginning, mainly due to BUPA being more well-known - so far my experience has been very positive! The only issue I encountered was related to a claim I did in the first few months after joining, when the process for approving the consultation was very long, with many, unnecessary questions. However, once the first 6 months was over, the process ran more smoothly and efficiently.

My query regarding excess payment options for my policy was handled efficiently- call back was on time. Agent was polite and friendly on the phone.

Price matched an alternative offer and warned of problems of switching in terms of new cover exclusions.

I was diagnosed with a Menigioma (a worrying, but benign, brain tumour) which causes temporary memory loss and confusion. The General and Medical team were constantly supportive and helpful to me throughout the 8 months of treatment. It was a great relief to feel that the team paying for the treatment was actually supporting me.

Great help Thank you

Very professional and straight to the point. This I do appreciate

I’ve had a couple of calls to and from the service team recently about my claim and I have been happy with the service. They knew their stuff and the process was smooth.

Been lovely customer service

Super sales service and really helpful I ask a lot of questions and Michael was able to guide me through it.Important decision and he made my decision easier,by giving me the choices,information and a much better understanding about what I was buying..I ended up getting the lifestyle plus because of the benefits which were right for us.

Great customer service from my claims rep Emma. She had a fabulous manner and made everything seem so simple when it could have been stressful. So glad that my experience was wonderful when my claim was approved and sorted pretty quickly.

Michael was particularly helpful and informative and I’d highly Recommend.

Very helpful and bundles of care which is why general and medical will stay as my insurance provider. Plus the good renewal price which always helps. I had to call in last week to check policy cover and yes I got the answer i was looking for but it was the easy way it was explained and they gave me time. It's been a tough year but this company has been one for the caring experience that I received which was very welcome.

Great company. When I needed to claim it was all straight forward and most importantly quick and I got to speak with the same person throughout which made it feel a lot more personal.

overall i have had good experiences whether that be needing to claim or just general policy maintenance like upgrading cover levels at renewal. Thankfully, only had to make a small claim whilst on cover and have to say it was relatively easy and quick to get authorised.

We took up G&M cover for our young family at c. £180 per month a few years ago. Like most medical cover, you hope to never need it. We've only ever been able to successfully claim for one referral appointment. The doctor we saw was less than impressive, and the cost of the excess was greater than the treatment. Since then we've seen numerous attempts to use the policy fail and it's always based on the small-print. I appreciate there are policy conditions and that is fair enough, but so much of this is the classic insurer principle of 'umbrella whilst the sun shines' in my eyes. Our second child was born and we claimed the birth benefit per the schedule. Despite having to send off proof of birth (birth certificate etc) and our policy being a family policy, when we tried to use the policy for our second child a few months later we were told we hadn't written to them to include him on the policy and therefore he was off-risk, and just to add to this, now we had disclosed a concern that line of cover was completely off-risk for him for the foreseeable. All based on the small print. We appealed this and made it clear that to us, redeeming the birth benefit should surely of indicated our inclination to include our child on the family policy alongside our first born, or at worst should have prompted the customer service advisor to ask the question but alas, we were knocked back. We've finally decided it's just the most awful waste of money as it routinely declines to pay out so we've moved to cancel and low-and-beyond, there's a clause that prevents us from cancelling the policy without paying the entire remaining premium if you 'try to claim'. So, to be clear, we asked about claiming and were told it would not be possible, but that still counts as an attempted claim and as such means we're now liable to pay the remainder of the year. Just the most appalling, shambolic show of corporate greed without any empathy, customer service or attempts to work in the client's favour. 0/10. Don't bother.

Avoid this company at all costs. You think you are insured but you are actually wasting your money. Unless you are a solicitor and have read every single clause, terms and conditions you will find when you claim they have a get out clause. My wife was hospitalised last year due to covid, for over three weeks. When she came to claim she was advised that the claim was invalid as she had been admitted as a result of a pandemic. Note that this was probably the quickest response we ever had, to say we were not covered, funny that. Please consider spending a few more pounds on a much more reputable and transparent company. Any recourse is also via the channel island ombudsman, something else that they don't tell you. Not exactly treating customers fairly and definitely does not tick the FCA definition of clear communication. Ridiculous General and Medical - you are there to help us read through the unfair terms and conditions - how long would you allow?! A clear and transparent view of the terms is what you should be providing so consumers can make an informed choice, no one reads terms end to end, and you know this and rely on it to wriggle out of paying claims, happy to charge £900 premium though right?! If my post prevents others being misled then it will be worth it

My review is generally good. Sometimes the process takes too long to get a gp referral and then an authorisation etc to see a specialist if you have an urgent situation. I would also say that the allocation for mental health treatment is nowhere near enough, for eg my policy gives me £1000 of cover, out of which I need an authorisation from a psychiatrist in order to access any kind of therapy and have it covered. This is totally unfair and makes no sense because people don’t always need a psychiatrist and it takes a huge chunk out of the mental health allocation. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to and I feel very strongly that this should be covered without having to see a psychiatrist first and that the cover should be more substantial than £1000 for a whole year, especially in this current climate. This is something that needs to change urgently.