Offering convenient relaxed consultations (up to 30 minutes) from GPs who care for NHS patients
Today Concierge Choice UK launches a new private GP membership service in London offering residents access to GPs who care for NHS patients combined with the personalised approach, time and convenience of private healthcare.
Members will be able to hand-pick a GP from a network of local GPs who have signed up to the service. They will see the same GP every time they visit the surgery, allowing them to form a long-term, personal relationship and ensuring continuity of care. While the service is available to all, a patient can register at a practice with a participating GP only if they are not registered as an NHS patient at that practice.
For an annual fee, the membership service will provide patients with access to same-day or next-day relaxed consultations (up to 30 minutes) and an annual health check-up, lasting up to an hour, which includes blood tests and urine analysis. The results are used to set personalised health and wellbeing goals which are then monitored and reviewed throughout the year.
Members will also receive their concierge GP’s mobile number and email for out of hours concerns. Some participating GPs will also offer home visits for an additional cost.
Dr Mark Sweeney, medical director for Concierge Choice UK, said: “I have been an NHS GP for over 25 years, and nowadays it has become harder to offer personalised care, where you form long-term relationships with patients and their families, which was the reason many of us became GPs in the first place. With the Concierge Choice UK programme, as well as focusing on patient needs, we wanted to enable GPs to form these personal relationships with patients and rediscover one of the most satisfying and rewarding parts of the job, continuity of care.”
NHS England’s recent GP patient survey shows that 53% of patients in the Borough of Westminster, covered by the Central London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), have a GP that they prefer to see and 25% get to see their preferred GP all the time.
NHS GPs are permitted to generate income through non-NHS sources such as occupational health medicine, sports medicine, acupuncture or private care. Because the Concierge Choice UK membership programme is so limited in nature, with each GP having no more than 75 members, they can offer appointments to patients who join the Concierge Choice UK membership programme during the time they would use for these non-NHS services, so their NHS patients will not be affected.
Participating GPs are able to choose what services they offer within the programme to fit within their NHS commitments, and to set their own costs. Generally membership will cost £1,200 per year (£100 per month), with follow up appointments costing around £30.
54% of 1,500 UK patients Concierge Choice UK surveyed said they would be interested in paying a membership fee for a range of services, including timely consultations, the ability to contact their GP directly for urgent concerns, an annual physical and advice on overall health and well-being.
The membership service is available in a number of London areas, including Bayswater, Earl’s Court, Golders Green, Kensington and Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill, South Kensington, St John’s Wood, Westminster and Winchmore Hill. A full list of participating GPs is available at: http://www.conciergechoice.co.uk/doctors.html
About Concierge Choice UK
Concierge Choice UK is the only UK provider of a concierge medicine membership service offering patients private care from GPs who care for NHS patients – with convenient relaxed consultations (up to 30 minutes), continuity of care and a focus on overall wellbeing.
Patients can choose their own GP from Concierge Choice UK’s growing network of experienced GPs who can provide convenient and personalised private care as and when patients need it, alongside their NHS commitments. They are not able to register for concierge care at the practice where they are registered for NHS care.
For further information visit: http://www.conciergechoice.co.uk/index.html
References
1 NHS England. GP Patient Survey. 2018. Available online: https://www.gp-patient.co.uk/ [accessed September 2018]
2 Concierge Choice UK. Survey of 1,512 UK patients in GP practices conducted in May 2017. Data on file.