The Wellness30 September 2026Last reviewed 30 September 2026
A private GP membership pays for your doctor, the same day, and for the planning around your health. Private medical insurance pays for hospital treatment, a specialist and surgery. They cover different things, so many people in London hold both. At The Wellness, membership starts at £6,950 a year.
Private medical insurance exists to pay for treatment. A consultant appointment, a scan a consultant asks for, an operation and the hospital stay around it. 6.5 million people in the UK held it in 2024, and insurers paid £4 billion in claims to 1.8 million of them, according to the Association of British Insurers.
Most policies ask for a referral from a GP before they authorise a consultant, and most leave out conditions you had before you joined for a period after you join. Read the policy for both before you rely on it.
A membership pays for your doctor. At The Wellness, Signature is £6,950 a year and gives you same day appointments in London, at our London clinics, including Marylebone and Belgravia, open from 7am to 9pm every day, and a doctor by phone or video wherever you are.
It pays for the everyday care insurance is not built for. The appointment today, the prescription, the sick note, the blood test that tells you where you stand, the flu vaccine, and the letter to a consultant that your insurer asks for.
Platinum, at £17,450 a year, adds a named physician who plans your health with you, a personal concierge and the executive physical every year.
The two meet at the referral. Your doctor sees you the same day, decides a specialist is needed, and writes the referral your insurer asks for, with the history and the results attached so the consultant starts with the whole picture.
A liaison then finds the right consultant, offers a first appointment within 48 hours when it is urgent and five working days when it is routine, and brings the letter back into your record. If your insurer has a list, we work from it. The Wellness is recognised by Aviva and WPA.
When the treatment is finished, your doctor is the one who reads the consultant’s letter with you and carries the plan forward.
If you are well, hold no insurance and want a doctor who knows you, membership alone covers most of what a year brings. When a specialist is needed we arrange them at member rates, which are 10% off the specialist appointments we arrange, and we give you the price before anything is booked.
If you rarely see a GP and want cover for the large, unlikely bill, insurance alone may be the right purchase. Without a membership, our prices are on the page. A telephone consultation is £59, a video consultation £150 and a same day appointment £220, and we write the referral your insurer needs.
Both make sense for people who want the same doctor the same day, and cover for the treatment that follows. Insurance through work often supplies the second, and membership the first.
Membership is twelve months from the day you join, paid for the year or monthly, and nothing renews without you.
Most insurers ask for a GP’s referral before they authorise a consultant. A good referral says what the problem is, what has been tried, what the tests show and what question the consultant is being asked, and it often saves a second appointment.
Our doctors write it the same day they see you, attach the results, and name the consultant when your insurer allows a choice. If the insurer asks for a pre-authorisation number, you call them with the letter in hand, and our team can speak to them for you.
When the consultant writes back, the letter comes into your record and your doctor goes through it with you, so the plan carries on after the hospital appointment.
If your policy does not cover a particular consultant or test, we give you the self pay price first, at member rates if you are a member.
Of a policy, ask what it excludes, how it treats conditions you already have, whether it limits which hospitals and consultants you can see, and what the excess is on each claim.
Of a membership, ask who your doctor will be, how quickly you are seen, what the limit on appointments is, and what sits outside the fee. Ours are on the membership page. Your doctor is named, you are seen the same day, Signature includes up to 12 same-day appointments in clinic and 36 by phone or video a year, and hospital care, specialists and medicines sit outside the fee.
6.5 million
people in the UK were covered by private medical insurance in 2024, and insurers paid £4 billion in claims to 1.8 million of them.
Association of British Insurers, private medical insurance data for 2024, published 2025
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
Insurers pay for treatment. Membership pays for your doctor, so it sits beside a policy rather than inside it.
Yes, the same day, with the history and results attached. The Wellness is recognised by Aviva and WPA.
No. Hospital treatment, surgery and a specialist’s own fee sit outside membership. We arrange them and give you the price first.
Buy for the thing you need most often. For most people that is a doctor, the same day, who knows them.