For your standard spell-caster, I think it's awful. It requires your action and a melee touch attack, heals hp instead of giving temporary hp, and you've got to concentrate on it. If you're not an armored caster, you've little hp and ac, you need to get out of melee as opposed to hanging around and trying to get some hp back. In this game, you'll most certainly lose concentration, do ineffectual damage, and likely get killed in the process.
For a 'melee caster', it's a little better, but still largely pointless. You'll use your action to do crap damage, get half that back as healing, if you even need the healing at the time. I guess if you don't have extra attack, which execution of this spell will interfere with, it's not as bad. But, in the end, you'll probably just lose concentration on it, and do little or nothing to improve your situation. And all this mediocrity for the cost of a 3rd level spell slot. Surely one can think of something better to do with a 3rd level spell slot. Perhaps the absolutely busted Haste spell?