Hospify will close its communications platform at the end of January following the government’s decision to suspend relevant terms of the UK 2018 Data Protection Act.
Hospify, founded in 2014, was created to provide secure, health-compliant messaging for health teams and patients throughout the UK and Europe.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the government announced that the terms of the UK 2018 Data Protection Act (which incorporates the GDPR) would be suspended in relation to health care for the duration of the crisis.
This meant that healthcare professionals were free to continue using non-compliant consumer messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, to communicate.
A spokesperson for the platform said, with no urgent need for its services, Hospify’s ‘exponential growth curve collapsed as rapidly as it had formed.’
The spokesperson said: “Without the demands of compliance driving users to our service we have found it impossible – with a few honourable exceptions – to attract sufficient clients and investment to pay our way.
“This difficult situation has been further exacerbated by the post-Brexit uncertainties surrounding the future of the UK’s data adequacy agreement with the EU.
“For 18 months we have fought tooth and nail to find a way through this impasse. We hoped that if we could survive to the end of the furlough scheme then, at that juncture, the data rules would be reimposed and we could pick up where we left off.
“But furlough has ended and the rules are still suspended with no conclusion in sight. Indeed with the Omicron variant on the rise it’s fair to say that we are still deep in the pandemic, even if the forms of society’s response to it have changed.
“In the end, and with very heavy hearts, we have just had to accept the fact that market conditions have deteriorated to the extent that we are unable to continue supporting the Hospify service in its current form. We will therefore be shuttering the platform on 31st January 2022.”
The spokesperson said Hospify will continue to exist after January 31st while the creators explore new markets in the EU and other regions.
If the Data Protection Act is reimposed in the UK, the creators will reassess the situation.
The spokesperson said: “Hospify as a company will continue to exist while we explore new markets in the EU and other regions in which health data protection is taken more seriously by the relevant governments and properly enforced by their respective regulators.
“It’s a sad end to a wonderful vision, a vision of universal health care communication that was both free of data exploitation and free at the point of use.
“We can only apologise sincerely to those who have backed us for not managing to realise that vision, and to thank them and all of our users – many of whom have been with us from the start – for their unstinting loyalty and support.
“So thank you all of you and farewell. For the time being, at least.”
