app-based plans ~5-20/mo
Advanced options
The private GP fee is often the SMALL number: private prescriptions charge the drug's full price (vs the flat NHS charge: a private script for something exotic can dwarf the consultation), private referrals lead to private specialist and scan prices, and blood panels bill per test. You stay registered with your NHS GP regardless (keep it: it's free and holds your records): the honest use-case is the can't-wait moment: the worrying symptom before a holiday, the recurring issue needing 25 unhurried minutes, the school-week ear infection. Ask the private GP to copy letters to your NHS GP: continuity is free.
What The Private GP Calculator Works Out
- Annual cost: the appointment fee multiplied by household visits a year, or the subscription's yearly cost if that is cheaper. Video consults run about GBP 45, standard in-person appointments GBP 80 to GBP 110 for 15 to 20 minutes, and extended half-hours with basic tests around GBP 150.
- What it does and doesn't buy: same or next-day access, 20 to 30 minute appointments against the NHS's compressed ten, and named-doctor continuity. It does not buy a faster NHS waiting list (a private referral does not accelerate one), emergency care, or anything your NHS GP would not do free given the wait.
- The hidden second bill: private prescriptions charge the drug's full market price, blood panels bill GBP 30 to GBP 150, specialist first appointments open at GBP 200 to GBP 300 and imaging at GBP 100 to GBP 400-plus. The consult fee is the entry ticket, not the ride.
- Custom fee per visit (advanced): enter the exact price your clinic quotes instead of the three typical tiers.
- Add-ons per year (advanced): count the private prescriptions, blood panels and specialist referrals you expect and price each; the card totals the second bill. Private prescriptions can be dispensed cheaply for common generics but cost the full drug price for anything exotic.
- True annual total and all-in cost per visit (advanced): consultations plus add-ons, as a yearly figure, a monthly figure and spread across each visit. This is the difference between the advertised price and the experienced one.
- Subscription break-even (advanced): the plan's yearly cost divided by what each pay-as-you-go visit saves, allowing for any per-visit fee the plan still charges. The once-or-twice-a-year household stays pay-as-you-go; the young-family winter occasionally justifies the app plan. Check your workplace benefits portal first, as many bundle virtual GP access nobody remembers they have.
- Price of each day skipped (advanced): the visit fee divided by the routine NHS wait you are paying to avoid. Pharmacy consultations (free, with prescribing powers for a list of common conditions), NHS 111 and practice triage catch the genuinely urgent into same-day slots more often than the queue's reputation suggests, and you should stay registered with your NHS GP regardless.