How we choose the laboratories and imaging centres we work with

What we look for in a partner

A partner of ours must hold the accreditation or registration that its work requires, must let a doctor of ours see every result, and must handle your data under a written contract. We describe partners by the standard they meet, and the registration of each is named in the documents we share with organisations that ask [1].

Consultations, treatments and diagnostics are provided by GMC registered clinicians, and regulated services are delivered through our registered partner clinics, UKAS accredited laboratories and registered pharmacies [2].

Laboratories and UKAS accreditation

For a medical laboratory, the standard that matters is accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) against ISO 15189. UKAS assessments check that a laboratory runs a quality management system and can show that specific tests are performed within the criteria the standard sets, which verifies its integrity, impartiality and competence [3].

Accreditation is given for named disciplines, among them clinical biochemistry, haematology, microbiology, immunology and genetics [3]. Ask whether the test you are having falls within a laboratory’s accredited scope, since a laboratory can be accredited for some tests and still run others. UKAS publishes a search of accredited organisations that anyone can use [3].

Clinics and imaging centres

In England a provider must register with the Care Quality Commission for each regulated activity it carries on, and diagnostic and screening procedures are a regulated activity of their own [4]. A partner clinic or imaging centre must be registered for the activity it performs for you.

Scans that use ionising radiation, such as CT, carry a further legal test. Under the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017, no exposure may be carried out unless a practitioner has justified it as showing a sufficient net benefit [5]. MRI uses no ionising radiation, and with us a consultant radiologist reads every scan and issues a written report within 24 to 48 hours [6].

Pharmacies

Every pharmacy licensed to practise in Britain must be on the register of the General Pharmaceutical Council and renew that registration every year, and anyone can check a pharmacy’s registration status online [7]. The register listed 13,318 pharmacies on 30 September 2026 [7]. A prescription from one of our doctors is dispensed by a registered pharmacy [2].

Your data, under contract

Your samples, images and results pass between us and our partners, so the terms on which a partner holds your data matter as much as its accreditation. Under UK GDPR, whenever one organisation processes personal data on behalf of another, a written contract must be in place [8].

That contract sets out what is processed, about whom, for how long and for what purpose. It requires the processor to act only on documented instructions, to keep the data confidential and secure, to help answer your requests about your own data, and to use another organisation only with prior authorisation under a written contract of its own [8].

Every result in one record

Accreditation tells you a test was run well. Its meaning for you comes from a doctor who reads it beside your history, your symptoms and your other results. With us, every result arrives into one record and the physicians we work with interpret the whole picture together, so nothing is read in isolation [6].

Questions to ask any clinic about its partners

These questions apply to any clinic that sends your samples or scans elsewhere. A clear clinic answers each of them before you pay.

• Is the laboratory accredited by UKAS, and is my test within its accredited scope?
• Is the clinic or imaging centre registered with the CQC for diagnostic and screening procedures?
• If the scan uses radiation, who justifies the exposure?
• Who reads the scan, and how soon is the report written?
• Is the pharmacy on the General Pharmaceutical Council register?
• Is there a written contract covering my data?
• Which doctor reads my results with me?

How The Wellness can help

Our clinics are on Baker Street in Marylebone and Eccleston Street in Belgravia, open from seven in the morning to nine at night every day. Every doctor is GMC registered, every result is explained by a doctor, and a GP appointment of 30 minutes is £150. Bring any test or scan you have been offered, and we will tell you which standard applies to it and what it could tell you.