Private GP vs NHS GP

• Cost — NHS free at the point of use; Cheshire Clinics £40 for 20 minutes
• Appointment length — NHS standard is 10 minutes; ours is 20
• Availability — NHS varies by practice; ours 6am to 10pm, seven days, usually same day
• Continuity — NHS holds your lifelong record; we choose your doctor and keep you with them
• Referrals — NHS can refer into NHS services; we can only refer privately
• Prescriptions — NHS prescriptions carry the standard charge or an exemption; ours are private, and you pay the pharmacy the drug cost
• Emergency and out-of-hours — NHS 111 and 999 cover this; we do not
• Vaccination and screening programmes — NHS only

Time. Twenty minutes rather than ten is the substantive difference, and it is not a marketing point. Ten minutes is enough to address the first thing you mention. It is rarely enough to take a full history, review your medication list, ask what else has been going on, and reach a considered answer. A great many appointments end with the real problem unraised.

Speed of access. Same-day appointments, 6am to 10pm, seven days a week including bank holidays. No 8am phone queue.

Choosing your doctor. You pick who you see and can keep going back to them.

Time-sensitive documents. Fit notes, travel letters and referral letters issued within ten minutes of the consultation.

Tests without a rationing conversation. NHS testing is appropriately governed by clinical thresholds. Privately, a test you want and that is reasonable can be arranged, and you pay for it.

The NHS is the better choice when

• You need something referred, investigated or treated within NHS services
• You have a long-term condition on a structured review programme
• The problem is urgent, or out-of-hours
• Cost is a real constraint — and we would rather say so than take your money
• You are due a vaccination or screening test

Private is the better choice when

• You cannot get an appointment in a timeframe that works, and the problem will not wait
• Twenty minutes is what the problem actually needs
• You need a document today — a fit note, a travel letter, a referral
• You want a test the NHS threshold does not currently justify
• Work or caring responsibilities make daytime appointments impossible
• You want to see the same doctor each time

What we would genuinely recommend

Stay registered with your NHS practice. Use us when the timing, the length of appointment or the paperwork is the problem. Where something needs an NHS pathway, we will tell you and write to your GP the same day.

Stay with the NHS if

• You need referral into NHS specialist care. We cannot make one. A private referral letter enters the private system, and if you want NHS treatment you will still need your own GP to refer you
• You need continuity of a complex long-term condition already held by a practice with your full record, hospital letters and results
• You need something only NHS general practice provides — childhood immunisations, cervical screening, contraceptive implants and coils, dressings, or the shared-care arrangements that govern drugs like methotrexate
• Cost is a real constraint. The NHS is free, and for a great many problems the outcome is the same

Consider paying if

• The wait is the problem. A symptom that is worrying you now, where a fortnight of uncertainty has its own cost
• Ten minutes is not enough. Menopause, several problems at once, a medication review, a complicated history — twenty minutes changes what is possible
• You want a second opinion on something you have already been seen about and are not settled by
• You need documentation — a letter, a report, a private sick note — that NHS practices are not obliged to provide

What we would say plainly

Do not deregister from your NHS practice. Nothing we offer replaces it, and losing that registration would cost you far more than any consultation fee saves.

Use both. That is not a compromise — it is what actually works.

Do I have to leave my NHS GP?

No, and you should not. Using a private GP has no effect on your NHS registration.

Keep both. They do different things, and deregistering would leave you worse off in every scenario.

Can you refer me to an NHS specialist?

No. No private GP service can, whatever the fee.

We can write to your NHS GP with our findings and reasoning, which often helps — but the referral decision remains theirs.

Will my NHS GP know I have seen you?

Only if you tell them, or if you ask us to write to them.

We would usually encourage that, because fragmented records are how things get missed — but it is your choice.

Is a private GP a better doctor?

No. UK GPs are trained and regulated identically, and many work in both systems.

What differs is the appointment, not the doctor. Twenty minutes instead of ten changes what can be covered; it does not change the qualification.

Can you prescribe anything my NHS GP can?

Not quite. We never prescribe opioids or stimulants remotely, we do not prescribe benzodiazepines or z-drugs for ongoing use, and some drugs require shared-care arrangements only an NHS practice can hold.

Everything else, where clinically appropriate, yes — as a private prescription you take to your own pharmacy.

Will I have to pay for the medication?

Yes. A private prescription means paying the pharmacy the actual drug cost plus their fee, with no NHS exemptions.

For cheap generics that is often less than the England prescription charge. For anything expensive it is considerably more, and we will tell you which before you commit.

Is it worth it for a straightforward problem?

Often not, and we will say so. A pharmacist can handle a great deal free of charge.

Paying makes sense when the wait, the time, or the complexity is the actual problem.