The symptoms that need checking, and the fastest route to being seen. Bowel screening is free and it saves lives.
Assessed and treated by a GMC-registered GP
Prescriptions, sick notes and referral letters included
A written treatment plan after every appointment
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
Attentive, unhurried care that listens properly
Five-star Google reviews from the people we have looked after
Registered with the Care Quality Commission
Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK, and one of the most treatable when it is found early. Caught at the earliest stage, the great majority of people are still alive five years later. Caught late, that figure falls sharply.
That difference is almost entirely about how quickly it is found — which is why the symptoms below are worth acting on rather than watching, and why the free screening programme matters more than anything sold privately.
We do not diagnose or treat cancer. Diagnosis needs colonoscopy and biopsy; treatment needs a specialist team. Neither happens remotely.
What a consultation can do is take the history properly and get you moving. If your symptoms warrant urgent investigation, we will say so plainly, write to your NHS GP the same day, and tell you exactly what to ask for.
Iron deficiency anaemia in a man of any age, or in a woman past the menopause, needs the bowel investigating. It is not something to treat with iron tablets and leave there.
This is missed regularly, because tiredness feels like a soft symptom and iron tablets make it better for a while.
Most people with these symptoms do not have cancer. Piles, anal fissures, IBS and infection are all far commoner.
That is a reason to get checked rather than a reason not to — because the checking is what separates the two, and it is quick.
None of these causes it on its own, and plenty of people with none of them are diagnosed. Risk factors explain populations, not individuals — which is why symptoms are investigated regardless of how healthy someone's habits are.
FIT — the faecal immunochemical test. A stool sample looking for tiny amounts of blood invisible to the eye. It is used both for screening and to help decide how urgently symptoms need investigating.
Colonoscopy. A camera examination of the whole bowel, and the definitive test — it both looks and takes biopsies, and can remove polyps in the same procedure.
CT colonography where colonoscopy is not suitable.
Blood tests — a full blood count and ferritin, looking for iron deficiency from slow bleeding. These support the picture; they do not diagnose or exclude cancer.
Normal bloods do not rule out bowel cancer. Plenty of people are diagnosed with an entirely normal full blood count.
If your symptoms fit, you need the bowel looked at — not more blood tests.
Diagnosis requires colonoscopy and biopsy. Treatment requires surgery, oncology and a multidisciplinary team. None of that can be delivered remotely, and no private GP consultation changes it.
A private GP generally cannot refer you directly into the NHS urgent suspected cancer pathway. That referral normally has to come from your own NHS GP.
So the fastest route is usually your NHS GP, not us, and we will say so. Where we help is in making that conversation impossible to dismiss — a written summary from a GMC-registered doctor setting out the findings and the reason for urgency.
Ask for the FIT test, and ask for your symptoms to be recorded. Being told you are too young is not a clinical reason — bowel cancer in younger adults is rising.
Ask specifically whether you need an urgent suspected cancer referral. It is free, it is fast, and it exists precisely for this.
Do not wait for a private appointment to raise any of the above. We would tell you to contact your NHS GP anyway.
Return your bowel screening kit. It arrives by post from age 50 in most of the UK, it takes minutes, and it is one of very few screening tests with proven mortality benefit.
A large proportion are never returned, most often by men, and most often in the areas where bowel cancer outcomes are worst. If you do one thing after reading this page, do that.
Screening finds polyps before they become cancer — so it does not only detect the disease, it prevents it.
Colon cleanses, detox regimes and coffee enemas do nothing for cancer risk and occasionally cause harm.
Nor do IgG food intolerance tests, which are sometimes sold to people with exactly these symptoms and delay the investigation that would actually answer the question.
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is free, it is posted to your home, and it saves lives. It uses a faecal immunochemical test and is being extended down to age 50 across England. Doing the kit when it arrives is the single most valuable thing on this page — more than any private test, and it costs nothing but a few minutes of mild inconvenience.
Uptake is the whole problem. A substantial proportion of kits are never returned, and screen-detected cancers are found earlier and are more treatable.
NHS care beyond screening is free and fast. Suspected bowel cancer goes down the urgent two-week-wait pathway to colonoscopy, and FIT is now also used to prioritise symptomatic patients.
Private colonoscopy can shorten a wait for non-urgent investigation, which is a legitimate reason to pay. It does not jump the urgent pathway, which is already fast.
Where we add genuine value is recognising the pattern and referring the same day — and specifically not accepting the two explanations that delay this diagnosis most: attributing rectal bleeding to haemorrhoids, and attributing a change in bowel habit to IBS in someone over 50.
Unexplained iron deficiency anaemia in a man, or in a woman past the menopause, warrants bowel investigation — that is a blood test we can arrange quickly and it is frequently the first clue.
NICE NG12, Suspected cancer: recognition and referral, is the governing guideline, defining urgent referral for abdominal or rectal mass, unexplained rectal bleeding with change in bowel habit, and unexplained iron deficiency anaemia.
NICE DG56, Quantitative faecal immunochemical testing to guide colorectal cancer pathway referral, recommends FIT to guide referral in symptomatic people — the basis for the point above about symptomatic testing.
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, on UK National Screening Committee advice, offers FIT every two years, with the eligible age range being extended to start at 50.
NICE NG151, Colorectal cancer, covers diagnosis, staging and management within specialist services.
NICE DG30 and NG151 also cover Lynch syndrome testing, and NICE CG164-equivalent familial guidance covers surveillance for those with a significant family history.
Probably not — piles and fissures are far commoner.
But persistent bleeding needs checking, and the check is straightforward. Being reassured by a doctor who has actually assessed it is worth having; reassuring yourself is not.
No, and this is worth pushing back on. Bowel cancer in adults under 50 has been rising, and "too young" is not a clinical assessment.
Ask for your symptoms to be documented and for a FIT test.
No. Many people are diagnosed with an entirely normal full blood count.
If the symptoms fit, the bowel needs looking at — more blood tests will not answer it.
Usually not as a first step, and we would rather say so.
The NHS urgent suspected cancer pathway is free and fast — typically faster than arranging it privately, and it comes with the specialist team attached.
Where private makes sense is a non-urgent question with a long local wait. Ask what happens if something is found, and whether onward care is included.
Generally no — that referral usually has to come from your NHS GP.
What we can do is write to them the same day with a clear clinical summary, which makes the case difficult to set aside.
A stool sample looking for invisible blood. It is used both in screening and to prioritise symptomatic patients.
A negative FIT lowers the likelihood considerably but does not exclude cancer — strong symptoms still warrant investigation.
Yes — having IBS does not protect you.
The thing to watch for is a change from your usual pattern, particularly bleeding, weight loss or waking at night with symptoms. Those are not IBS features and should be assessed.
It can, considerably. A close relative diagnosed young, or several affected relatives, may mean earlier and more frequent screening — free on the NHS, through genetics or gastroenterology.
It is worth raising specifically, because it is not always asked about.
August 30, 2026
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
Patient reviews
