Is a private GP membership worth it in London
A private GP membership in London is worth it when you want the same doctor, seen the same day, more than a few times a year. At The Wellness, Signature is £6,950 a year and Platinum £17,450. Paid one visit at a time, a same day appointment is £220.
What the fee buys
A private GP membership in London buys three things that are hard to buy one appointment at a time. You see a doctor on the day you need one. The same doctor reads your history each time, rather than a new one starting from the beginning. And somebody whose job is the next step arranges your referral, scan and letter.
At The Wellness that is Signature, private primary care at £6,950 a year paid upfront, or £610 a month for twelve months. You are seen the same day at our London clinics, which include 10 Portman Square in Marylebone and 9 Eccleston Street in Belgravia, open from 7am to 9pm every day. Wherever you are in the world, your doctor answers by phone or video.
Platinum, at £17,450 a year, adds a named physician who plans your health with you, a personal concierge, the executive physical every year and a longevity plan reviewed every quarter.
The arithmetic
The average person in England has about five consultations a year with their GP practice. The University of Oxford counted 100 million of them and found the rate had risen to 5.16 a year. Paid on the day at our prices, five same day appointments come to £1,100.
So a membership is poor value for somebody who sees a doctor five times a year and never at short notice. It starts to pay for the people who see a doctor more than that, who travel, who look after a parent or a child, or who want their prevention planned rather than remembered.
The parts of Signature that carry a price of their own are worth setting beside the fee. Two house calls a year, at £450 each without a membership. Three guest passes, each a same day appointment for a family member or a friend, at £220 each. A yearly blood test chosen with your doctor, and the flu vaccine.
Membership has fair use rather than no limit. Signature includes up to 12 same-day appointments in clinic and 36 by phone or video a year, which is many times what most people use.
Continuity is the part that is hard to buy back
The case for a membership is strongest for somebody with a condition held to a target over years, and for somebody who wants the doctor who knows them to be the one who answers.
It is worth asking who the doctor would be, and for how long. Our primary care lead, Dr Adel Elalfy, has been a GP in Britain for more than twenty five years, has been a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners since 2001 and has held the same partnership since 2007. Those are facts on his own profile on this site, and they are the kind of fact worth asking any practice for before you pay an annual fee.
A 2024 systematic review in the American Journal of Medicine found that concierge and direct primary care were associated with fewer emergency visits and hospital admissions and with higher patient satisfaction. It is an association across other cohorts rather than a trial, and it is the honest case for paying for continuity.
What we check, and why
A membership justified mainly by a yearly screen of everything is justified badly. The 2019 Cochrane review pooled 251,891 people and found that general health checks did not reduce deaths from any cause, while producing more diagnoses.
So your doctor chooses the yearly blood test with you, up to the Advanced Health panel of fifty five markers, and screening follows your age and your family history. Your heart and diabetes risk, blood pressure and cholesterol are checked the way national guidance recommends, and the result of every test is gone through with you by the doctor who ordered it.
When paying on the day is the better choice
If you saw a GP twice last year and both times it could have waited a week, pay for the appointment you need on the day you need it. A telephone consultation is £59, a video consultation £150 and a same day appointment in clinic £220.
If you want the same doctor without a membership, ask for them by name when you book. The membership buys the availability and the planning around that doctor.
Where the numbers come from
100 million
consultations in English general practice were analysed, and the rate rose from 4.67 to 5.16 consultations per person per year between 2007 and 2014.
Hobbs FDR and colleagues, Clinical workload in UK primary care, The Lancet, 2016. University of Oxford
2024
is the year of the systematic review associating concierge and direct primary care with fewer emergency visits and hospital admissions and higher patient satisfaction.
Systematic review of concierge and direct primary care. American Journal of Medicine, 2024
251,891
people were pooled in the Cochrane review of general health checks, which found no reduction in death from any cause and more diagnoses.
Krogsbøll LT and colleagues, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2019 Open the paper
Good to know
Signature is £6,950 a year paid upfront, or £610 a month for twelve months. Platinum is £17,450 a year, or £1,530 a month. Both run for twelve months from the day you join.
Yes. Signature includes up to 12 same-day appointments in clinic and 36 by phone or video a year. Platinum includes 24 and 72. Beyond that, appointments are at member prices.
No. A membership pays for your doctor. Insurance pays for hospital treatment. Many members keep both, and we send the referral letter an insurer asks for.
Each person joins with their own membership and their own record. Guest passes give a family member or a friend a same day appointment on yours.
Ready to book
Choose a time at the clinic in Marylebone. If you are not sure what you need, request an appointment and we will point you to the right person.