Becoming a Private GP

Six months ago - and for the first time in my career - I was asked whether I would see a patient privately. 

This wasn’t your typical private patient – in fact I would say they were atypical – but their reasons were understandable.  They wanted me to spend more dedicated time with them to work through their medical needs and - notwithstanding my wonderful colleagues - they wanted to see me specifically.  As I was seeing this patient at the NHS surgery where I locum, this was not an option and I booked them an appointment the following week with a mental note to run over time come what may.  But their question prompted me to consider the services I offer in my medical practice.

After nearly 25 years’ service in the NHS, the thought of starting to see patients in a private hospital setting is an interesting one to unpack.  As well as the typical self-limiting beliefs of ‘Why would anyone want to see me?’, there’s the moral and ethical questions around private practice generally to consider. 

While this may be contentious, many GPs and family doctors have been self-employed since the foundation of the NHS.  There’s an argument to say that they profit – a very loaded word in healthcare - from the NHS.  Your local GP practice is most likely to be owned and managed by a group of GPs contracting with the local NHS body to provide primary care services to a list of patients in a geographical area, typically numbering between 10,000 to 20,000 patients. 

Let’s not go into the politics of all of this (this blog doesn't do politics!) but it’s fair to say that these GP partnerships can and do make a profit – and its worth remembering that the partners themselves will have invested in the practice, its buildings and have an ongoing personal liability in the running of their partnership.  For five years in the 2000s, I juggled raising a family with the responsibilities and pressures of GP partnership in Hackney, London – challenging, rewarding and I remain so proud of the service we offered our local population. 

For the last 15 years, I’ve lived in West Berkshire and have worked both as a Salaried GP and as a Locum GP for local NHS practices.  These services have been NHS services that you’ll be familiar with – the typical 10-minute appointment, free at the point of use.  I also work for our local Out of Hours provider as a telephone triage doctor in the evenings, early mornings and weekends when your GP practice is closed.

It's no secret that since the pandemic, NHS services have been under relentless pressure.  The reasons are many and varied and I certainly won’t go into the politics or strikes but the effect on my patients is clear. Patients are struggling to get access to good primary care services and they are increasingly presenting in poorer health, with more complex needs and a greater sense of urgency.  While the more transactional appointments continue (repeat prescriptions for example), there has been a huge increase in complex appointments.  Where the NHS cannot provide, patients are either going without or are increasingly seeking private care. 

The moral dimension of private practice does bear consideration. Healthcare in the UK has long been a compromise between healthcare free at the point of use provided by the NHS, with healthcare provided by private providers – through individual specialists working in private hospitals or private centres within an NHS hospital site.

Every GP will have referred patients privately at some point in their career – this is part of patient choice. It’s my belief that patients should also be free to see a private GP when they want to do so – when they want to see a specific GP, with continuity of service and at a time that suits them.  I respect my colleagues who choose not to provide any private service, but many colleagues, all specialists in their fields, manage to provide a service in both the NHS and privately, so why shouldn’t a GP? 

To answer this question fully, it’s worth digging into the role of the GP a little more. What does a GP actually do?  GPs are by their very nature generalists but that doesn’t mean we’re not specialists.  While we may not be focused on one very specific area of the body in a specific patient population, for example like the colleague who is a specialist in children’s knee and ankle joints, as a GP I am a specialist generalist. 

And ‘Why me?’  There are always good reasons not to do something, to let the inertia of routine and familiarity hold me back.  Doctors get stuck in ruts, just like their patients.  Ultimately, I believe in patient choice and I know I have a lot to offer my patients – my reviews and testimonials tell me so.  I have nearly 25 years’ experience in treating the ‘whole person’ and in my time have seen pretty much every condition under the sun, from malaria and swine flu to complex psychiatric conditions – and everything in between.  I am proud of my practice and I am a Specialist GP.

I am delighted to say that I will be joining so many of my other colleagues in the NHS by offering to see patients privately.  I will be practising at the wonderful Ridgeway Hospital in Wroughton, part of the Circle Group. The Ridgeway is a fantastic hospital and is benefiting from significant investment in its buildings and patient offering, many of which will open this Autumn 2024.

I will continue to work proudly as an NHS GP and to provide Out of Hours care but it’s clear to me that there’s a patient population who increasingly need and want to see a Specialist GP like me.

Dr Katie Simpson

Specialist GP

August 2024