A cough lasting three weeks needs assessing — and a normal chest X-ray does not settle the question.
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
Lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer in the UK, and the reason is timing. Around three quarters of cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when the options are far more limited.
Found early, it is often curable. The problem is that early lung cancer produces symptoms that are easy to attribute to something else — a lingering cough, being a bit more breathless, feeling tired.
A cough lasting three weeks or more needs assessing. Not treating with another antibiotic, not waiting another fortnight — assessing, with a chest X-ray.
A normal chest X-ray does not rule out lung cancer. A meaningful proportion are not visible on a plain film, and persistent symptoms still need following up.
We do not diagnose or treat lung cancer. What we can do is recognise when symptoms need urgent investigation and get that moving.
Finger clubbing — a change in the shape of the fingertips and nails — is worth mentioning to a doctor if you notice it.
A chest infection that keeps coming back in the same area is a pattern that deserves a chest X-ray rather than a third course of antibiotics.
Around one in ten lung cancers in the UK occur in people who have never smoked, and those cases are frequently diagnosed later because nobody suspects it.
Never having smoked is not a reason to dismiss a persistent cough, and it should not be treated as one.
Smoking causes the large majority of lung cancers, and risk relates to how long someone smoked more than to how much per day.
Stopping helps at any age and at any stage. Risk falls steadily after quitting, and it never becomes too late to be worth doing.
If you worked in construction, shipbuilding, mining, ceramics or heavy industry, say so. It changes how symptoms are assessed and how urgently.
Asbestos exposure can cause disease decades later, and it is often not asked about.
A chest X-ray is the usual first test, and it is quick, cheap and low-dose.
But it misses a meaningful proportion of lung cancers. This is the single most important thing on this page: a normal chest X-ray does not exclude lung cancer. If symptoms persist, they need re-assessing regardless of what the film showed.
A CT scan shows considerably more, and is used where suspicion is higher or where the X-ray is unclear. PET-CT follows where staging is needed.
Only a biopsy establishes it. That may be by bronchoscopy, by a needle through the chest wall under CT guidance, or from a lymph node.
No blood test screens for or diagnoses lung cancer. Tumour markers are not screening tests, and a normal set of bloods proves nothing here.
We cannot listen to your chest, which matters for breathlessness. We do not diagnose or treat lung cancer — that needs imaging, biopsy and a specialist team.
Your NHS GP can request a chest X-ray directly, free, and can refer on the urgent suspected cancer pathway — which a private GP generally cannot.
For symptoms this urgent, that is the better route and we will say so.
NHS stop-smoking support is free and several times more effective than willpower alone. If you smoke, that is the single highest-value action available to you — more than any test we could sell.
Ask specifically for a chest X-ray, and ask for it to be recorded that you requested it.
Go back. A normal chest X-ray does not close the question, and persistent symptoms warrant reassessment rather than reassurance.
This is the one that matters more than everything else combined. Risk falls steadily after quitting, and there is no age at which it stops being worth doing.
NHS stop-smoking services are free, and several times more effective than trying alone. They are also substantially under-used. If you take one thing from this page, take that.
NHS targeted lung health checks are being rolled out for people aged 55 to 74 with a significant smoking history. It is a free, invited, evidence-based programme using low-dose CT.
This is real screening, unlike the whole-body scans marketed privately — targeted at people who genuinely benefit, and shown to find cancers earlier.
Whole-body CT screening in people without symptoms. It delivers a meaningful radiation dose, finds incidental abnormalities in a large share of people, and has never been shown to save lives. We will not refer for it.
The most valuable thing here is free and takes one phone call: a chest X-ray. NICE recommends an urgent chest X-ray within two weeks for anyone over 40 with a cough lasting more than three weeks, or with other qualifying symptoms — and NHS direct-access X-ray is free, quick and widely available.
That threshold is lower than most people expect, and it exists because early lung cancer is nearly always silent. The commonest reason for delay is a persistent cough being treated as a chest infection two or three times over.
NHS Targeted Lung Health Checks are being rolled out, offering free low-dose CT screening to people aged 55 to 74 with a significant smoking history. If you are invited, go — screening detects cancers at a stage where they can be cured, and uptake is the limiting factor.
Private lung screening exists but should follow the same criteria. Low-dose CT screening in people at low risk is not recommended — it finds incidental nodules in a large proportion of people, leading to repeated scans, anxiety and occasionally invasive procedures for something benign.
What we can do is arrange the urgent X-ray or referral the same day, and take a persistent cough seriously rather than treating it again.
Stopping smoking remains worthwhile at any age and after any diagnosis, and NHS services are free.
NICE NG12, Suspected cancer: recognition and referral, is the governing guideline. It recommends an urgent chest X-ray within two weeks for people aged 40 and over with unexplained cough lasting three weeks or more, and for a range of other features including haemoptysis, weight loss, chest pain, breathlessness, fatigue, appetite loss, finger clubbing and persistent chest infection.
NG12 recommends immediate referral for anyone with chest X-ray findings suggesting lung cancer, or with unexplained haemoptysis aged 40 and over.
NICE NG122, Lung cancer: diagnosis and management, covers the diagnostic and staging pathway within specialist services.
The NHS Targeted Lung Health Check programme, following UK National Screening Committee advice, offers low-dose CT to a defined higher-risk population based on age and smoking history — the basis for the point above about screening eligibility.
No — and this is the most important answer on this page.
A meaningful proportion of lung cancers are not visible on a plain chest film. If your symptoms persist, go back and say so. A normal X-ray is reassuring, not conclusive.
Yes — around one in ten UK cases occur in people who have never smoked.
Those cases are diagnosed later precisely because nobody expects them. Never having smoked is not a reason to leave a three-week cough alone.
Three weeks. That is the threshold used across UK guidance, and it applies whether or not you smoke.
Coughing up blood needs assessing straight away, regardless of how long it has been going on.
A change from your usual pattern. A cough that is different, more frequent, or producing blood; breathlessness worse than your normal; or weight loss.
Having COPD raises rather than lowers your risk, which is worth knowing.
Possibly, if you are 55 to 74 and have a significant smoking history. The programme is being rolled out area by area, and invitations come automatically where it has launched.
It is worth asking your GP practice whether it is running near you — it is free and it is genuine, evidenced screening.
If you have symptoms, no — the NHS urgent pathway is faster and free.
If you have no symptoms, also no. Whole-body screening CT finds harmless abnormalities in a large proportion of people and has never been shown to help.
Generally no — that referral usually comes from your NHS GP.
We write to them the same day with a clear summary of the findings, which makes the case difficult to set aside.
No, and that is not encouragement — it is the evidence. Risk falls after quitting at every age, and stopping improves outcomes even after a diagnosis.
Free NHS support works considerably better than going it alone.
Yes. Asbestos-related disease can appear decades after exposure, and the risk combines with smoking rather than simply adding to it.
Tell any doctor assessing chest symptoms about it, because it is frequently not asked and it changes the urgency.
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
