A private GP when you have just moved to London

Care in your first week

In your first days you may need a repeat prescription or advice for a child who is unwell. A private GP can see you the same day without registration, and needs only your name, your date of birth, a telephone number and the address where you are staying [1].

Your first appointment is also a good moment to hand over your history. A doctor who reads your records early can spot a medicine that needs replacing before it runs out.

Registering with a local GP practice

Register with a GP practice near your home once you have an address. If you came on a visa, you have probably paid the immigration health surcharge, which lets you use public healthcare from the date your visa starts, though some services such as prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests and assisted conception may still be charged [2].

A private GP can sit alongside your local practice. With your consent, results and letters can be sent to your practice so your record stays complete. Seeing a doctor who knows you matters, and a systematic review found that most high quality studies linked greater continuity of care with doctors to lower mortality, although the evidence is observational [3].

Bringing your medicines from abroad

Plan your medicines before you fly. If you are not a UK resident, carry a letter showing the medicine was prescribed for you, with your name, your travel dates, each medicine with its amount, dose and strength, and the prescriber’s signature [4]. You can bring up to 3 months supply, and any medicine containing a controlled drug must travel in your hand luggage [4]. If you are already a UK resident and were prescribed a medicine abroad, GOV.UK asks you to contact the Drug and Firearms Licensing Unit [4].

For more than 3 months, a UK doctor or pharmacist prescribes the medicine once you are here, including medicines not licensed in the UK, and you may need to pay [4]. A UK doctor cannot prescribe every medicine licensed elsewhere, so bring the box or a photograph of it and the doctor will tell you what can be continued [1]. Do not stop a regular medicine suddenly while you wait.

Your vaccination records

Bring every vaccination record you have, for yourself and for your children. UK guidance asks that people arriving from abroad are assessed and moved onto the UK schedule as soon as possible, and accepts written evidence such as health documents or vaccine passports [5]. Where there is no written record, a reliable verbal history may be accepted [5].

If no reliable history can be established, the person is treated as unimmunised and a catch-up course is planned [5]. Some doses given abroad may not count, for example oral polio vaccine given in another country since April 2016 [5]. The UK schedule changes over time, and the current version applies from 1 September 2026 [6].

Moving your medical records

Ask your last doctor for a summary before you leave, in English if possible. If your records are held by an organisation in the UK, you have a right to ask for copies, called a subject access request, and organisations usually have one month to respond [7].

• A summary of your diagnoses, operations and allergies
• A list of every medicine, with doses, and the prescriber’s letter
• Vaccination records for each member of the family
• Recent blood results, scan reports and specialist letters
• Your children’s growth and developmental records, if you have them

Care for children

Our doctors see children from three months old, with a parent or guardian in the room [1]. A baby under three months who is unwell should go to a paediatric emergency department, and we will say so rather than take the appointment [1].

Children often need a catch-up plan when they move. UKHSA gives the example of a child from overseas who has had 2 valid doses of MMR vaccine and may still be eligible for further doses of the combined MMRV vaccine [5]. A doctor or nurse can read your child’s record against the UK schedule and set out what, if anything, is due.

Who this suits, and its limits

A private GP suits you while you wait to register locally, and whenever you want to be seen the same day by a doctor with time to read records from another country. It does not replace emergency care. For chest pain, difficulty breathing, signs of a stroke, severe bleeding or a serious head injury in the UK, call 999 [8].

Care paid privately is charged per appointment, and medicines and tests are priced separately. Records from abroad can be incomplete, so a doctor may suggest repeating a test or a vaccine rather than rely on a gap.

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, and a doctor can come to your new home. Every doctor is on the GMC register [9], regulated services are delivered through registered partner clinics and accredited laboratories, and results are explained by a doctor. We consult in English and in Arabic, and bring an interpreter for other languages [1].

If you have moved from another city where The Wellness arranges care, appointments are arranged with partners in 12 city pages beyond London, so your record can follow you.