Private GP service

[page3]

Does anyone use and recommend such a service?

Our local surgery is going downhill fast. It is now online only for all contact and this isn’t working well.

I’m not necessarily wanting to go fully private (for cost reasons), but rather looking for a private GP service, for a monthly cost.

[Steve H]

I know someone who has used a private GP, cost was per appointment rather than monthly.

Getting an appointment wasn’t a problem obviously but plugging back into the NHS system for ongoing support looks difficult compared to getting a private appointment with a consultant where getting treatment back through the NHS generally isn’t an issue.

[dhalv]

I am a member with HCA (Rood Lane) I can get a telephone appt almost instantly and if I want a face to face I can get it within the day or on the day typically.

The doctors are excellent and have clearly been vetted so they communicate well and are very easy to engage with. I bloody well hate my local GP they are so bad on the verge of completely incompetent. Private healthcare is not for everyone and divides opinion but if you can afford it and are able, it is fantastic.

The cost is covered 50% by my employer but my wife pays full cost of around £350 per year for as many appointments as you like. If you went appt by appt then it would by £75 per appt

[Mr Whippy]

My local GP are now basically useless.

Filling in forms for ages. Then getting near enough one liner text messages back.
No way to have a dialog about an issue or concern.
Apparently patients like this, so they say, but I don’t believe it.
Pre-Covid they were excellent.
They say they’re so busy but everyone locally is generally asking what do the GPs do all day.

I’m now keen to have the NHS GP element privatised and the GPs can get some competition going, then we’ll see what consumers want.


I’ve since used a private consultant and fed back into NHS but it was eye-wateringly expensive (£230 for 20 mins)

I’d fancy some blood tests again to check on some stuff. I just know the GP will say no point, via internet/txt, and that’ll be it... so back to private I’ll go.

And the government want to increase NI. It’s a joke.

[dalenorth]

Many of our life insurance providers now include them FOC. I have used AIG, Vitality, and Canada Life’s services and they have all been brilliant. Many private medical companies also include remote GP

[Sheepshanks]

dhalv said:

I am a member with HCA (Rood Lane) I can get a telephone appt almost instantly and if I want a face to face I can get it within the day or on the day typically.

The doctors are excellent and have clearly been vetted so they communicate well and are very easy to engage with. I bloody well hate my local GP they are so bad on the verge of completely incompetent. Private healthcare is not for everyone and divides opinion but if you can afford it and are able, it is fantastic.

The cost is covered 50% by my employer but my wife pays full cost of around £350 per year for as many appointments as you like. If you went appt by appt then it would by £75 per appt

What happens if, as seems typical, the doctor wants a bunch of blood tests?

[juggsy]

I use Vitality GP (via work health insurance), all works great with appointments within a day or two until you need a private prescription filled. Then it becomes a bit of a faff. Took a couple of pharmacies who knew what to do with it and how to dispense it.

[dhalv]

Sheepshanks said:

dhalv said:

I am a member with HCA (Rood Lane) I can get a telephone appt almost instantly and if I want a face to face I can get it within the day or on the day typically.

The doctors are excellent and have clearly been vetted so they communicate well and are very easy to engage with. I bloody well hate my local GP they are so bad on the verge of completely incompetent. Private healthcare is not for everyone and divides opinion but if you can afford it and are able, it is fantastic.

The cost is covered 50% by my employer but my wife pays full cost of around £350 per year for as many appointments as you like. If you went appt by appt then it would by £75 per appt

What happens if, as seems typical, the doctor wants a bunch of blood tests?

With the membership you also get a "MOT" with blood tests annually. When I have had the need for blood tests, I have called my NHS GP and got the order to get them done on the NHS, however, I do take the results to my private GP for discussion. On the occasion i need to pay for the blood tests I just do it.

The one difference with Rood lane/HCA is that it is not only 'telemedicine' you can get a F2F appt too within 24 hours!

[yellowtr]

I use a private GP service in South London and pay a membership fee per month. Service is awesome and give me peace of mind as I gave up years ago trying to get an appointment with my local NHS Trust service-dread to think what it is like now

https://www.theprivategpgroup.co.uk/

[aparna]

Can these private GP's refer to NHS consultants?

I remember asking my GP and they said I can get a private diagnosis, but would still need to start from scratch with them if I needed NHS treatment.

I had a look at vitality, and it claims to offer full service, Does this include expensive stuff like MRIs scans and operations?

It seems suspiciously cheap at about 500 a year. The averate earner pays thousands a year for NHS 'insurance' no?

[Saweep]

I think private doctors are great if you have health insurance or plenty of cash for the referrals they will inevitably provide.

My GP costs £65 for a basic appointment.

Tbh, not having to go anywhere near the NHS for non emergency issues is worth every penny

[Sheepshanks]

aparna said:

Can these private GP's refer to NHS consultants?

I remember asking my GP and they said I can get a private diagnosis, but would still need to start from scratch with them if I needed NHS treatment.

I had a look at vitality, and it claims to offer full service, Does this include expensive stuff like MRIs scans and operations?

It seems suspiciously cheap at about 500 a year. The averate earner pays thousands a year for NHS 'insurance' no?

They're all a bit of a can of worms - bit like 3rd party car warranties, they're OK if you've something specifically wrong that they can fix, but not good if it's all a bit vague unless you've got to range cover and even then they want to see treatment progressing, they don't cover routine re-checks etc.

Looking at the basic Vitality cover, it doesn't appear to cover consultants fees, or out-patient treatment. It looks like if you add the out patient option, it includes both.

When I worked for a big company with Bupa Corporate cover we got into difficulty as the out patient cover was very limited - IIRC it was £1000 which goes in the twinkling of an eye in a private hospital.

I work in a smaller company now and we use Axa but we have the "tick every box" cover, and it's for families and we're mainly getting pretty old now. The premiums are multiple £K - mine (including wife) is near as dammit £10K. If you're young, with good medical history and single then it'd be far cheaper.

[AlfaPapa]

aparna said:

Can these private GP's refer to NHS consultants?

Yes, they can.
A Private GP should be able to make referrals in the same way an NHS contracted GP does. Any NHS eligible individual should not have ordinarily funded NHS treatment withheld from them.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-pat...
Key paragraph:
"patients who have chosen to pay privately for an element of their care are entitled to receive NHS diagnostic tests free of charge as long as they are eligible. A referral by a private GP for an NHS diagnostic test should not be any different from an NHS GP referral".
(It's an old document, 2009, but has not been updated or replaced)


The private GP will have to ensure the referral complies with local commissioning policies. So, for example, you have been suffering with knee pain. Your local commissioners have restricted knee replacement procedures to patients with a BMI of less than 35, who are non-smokers AND who have had 6 months of conservative treatment without any improvement. You would still need to meet those criteria even if seeing a Private GP.

[Cloudy147]

Hi all,

Thread revival.

I'm currently on hold for my GP. Current wait time at 73 minutes. I'll then have to fight for an appointment today, as they will no doubt be full by now. Then I'll get a call back. Then they'll ask me to come in. Wifey tells me this is the new normal. They used to be excellent pre covid. Its all gone to st, and all of the doctors around us are either part of the same organisation, or have similarly poor experience.

Anyhow... I'm considering private GP. The Cloudy household doesn't use the docs that much, but when we need them, we really need them. At about £100 for a consultation it seems fairly reasonable to me to have a less stressful experience.

Question though for anyone who uses private GP... what happens with prescriptions? I assume its not a standard issue £9 NHS one, but rather a full price jobby? All my searches online for private prescription examples aren't bringing up costs - does anyone have a cost comparison example?

Thanks.

[markh1973]

Cloudy147 said:

Hi all,

Thread revival.

I'm currently on hold for my GP. Current wait time at 73 minutes. I'll then have to fight for an appointment today, as they will no doubt be full by now. Then I'll get a call back. Then they'll ask me to come in. Wifey tells me this is the new normal. They used to be excellent pre covid. Its all gone to st, and all of the doctors around us are either part of the same organisation, or have similarly poor experience.

Anyhow... I'm considering private GP. The Cloudy household doesn't use the docs that much, but when we need them, we really need them. At about £100 for a consultation it seems fairly reasonable to me to have a less stressful experience.

Question though for anyone who uses private GP... what happens with prescriptions? I assume its not a standard issue £9 NHS one, but rather a full price jobby? All my searches online for private prescription examples aren't bringing up costs - does anyone have a cost comparison example?

Thanks.

You pay the price of the drugs they prescribe to you. You'd need to know what drugs they are likely to prescribe in order to be able to compare the costs.

One advantage I found was that the steroid cream prescribed I couldn't get as all the pharmacies had no stock but the GP was able to use his contacts to get me some delivered (obviously at a cost on top of the drugs but at least I had them).

[Mr Whippy]

I have a feeling my last prescription from private hospital’s consultant was still very reasonable.

At least relative to the GP/consultant fees.

If there is going to be a long-term need easy enough to get it via NHS, iirc my GP just took the consultant’s note and offered said prescription on NHS.

[pavarotti1980]

Cloudy147 said:

Hi all,

Thread revival.

I'm currently on hold for my GP. Current wait time at 73 minutes. I'll then have to fight for an appointment today, as they will no doubt be full by now. Then I'll get a call back. Then they'll ask me to come in. Wifey tells me this is the new normal. They used to be excellent pre covid. Its all gone to st, and all of the doctors around us are either part of the same organisation, or have similarly poor experience.

Anyhow... I'm considering private GP. The Cloudy household doesn't use the docs that much, but when we need them, we really need them. At about £100 for a consultation it seems fairly reasonable to me to have a less stressful experience.

Question though for anyone who uses private GP... what happens with prescriptions? I assume its not a standard issue £9 NHS one, but rather a full price jobby? All my searches online for private prescription examples aren't bringing up costs - does anyone have a cost comparison example?

Thanks.

Cost will likely be list (BNF) plus a dispensing fee. BNF is available online if you want get an idea of costs

[mikeiow]

Feels like a postcode lottery nowadays.
Maybe posters should pop their area in. LE3 here…..

We don’t particularly have any issues with our regular NHS doc, although I am sure some may. Not sure the last time I went, although they did decide it was time I sent them a urine sample, so that was dropped in today!!

[Sticks.]

Cloudy147 said:

Hi all,

I'm currently on hold for my GP. Current wait time at 73 minutes. I'll then have to fight for an appointment today, as they will no doubt be full by now. Then I'll get a call back. Then they'll ask me to come in. Wifey tells me this is the new normal. They used to be excellent pre covid. Its all gone to st, and all of the doctors around us are either part of the same organisation, or have similarly poor experience.

This is the case at my local med centre.

Apparently, rather than wait in vain for the phone to be answered, some people have had success in getting an appointment by queueing in time for the centre to open (as posted on village FB page).

Whether staff are dealing with the queue rather than answering the phone, I don't know, but so it goes on.

[Siko]

If this helps anyone you can get an online virtual GP through my AXA insurance, which is meant to be quite good - apparently you can get a video appointment very quickly. I haven't used them myself but a mate did during the initial bits of his cancer diagnosis when he found a lump, he was able to get referred very quickly for a scan which found the cancer. This took a couple of months for me (when I had cancer aswell) to do via the NHS so you can see it has it's uses. Just to add to the comment ref costs of drugs, my son had specialist spinal surgery recently and whilst it was a bit of a faff getting it approved (twin surgeons, very expensive anethetist etc all requiring specific approval) it was all sorted out and for a 5 day stay in hospital the only cost for any of us was the drugs my son took home. TBH I was very nervous as I was anticipating getting a ridiculous bill and asked them discreetly beforehand if it was going to be expensive, they gave me a rough guide and the total cost for a bag full of pain meds and various creams, dressings etc was £53....which I thought was very reasonable.