New figures showing a boom in the UK’s private GP market have sparked mixed emotions among independent doctors.
Market analysts LaingBuisson estimates as many as 13% of GP consultations are now private, up from just 3% two decades ago, while the sector is worth around £1.6bn.
But the Independent Doctors Federation (IDF) GP committee, which helps doctors in the specialty set up and manage their clinics, warned that the reason for this increase was due to patients’ difficulties obtaining appointments to see their NHS GP and long health service waiting times.
Dr Shaima Villait, its chair, said: ‘Although this is a boost for the private healthcare industry and we are here to reduce the burden on the NHS, it is a bittersweet boost knowing our NHS colleagues are suffering with limited funds trying to meet the increased patient needs.
‘Rapid access for patients is priority, and although we are here to support our NHS colleagues, more needs to be done to improve NHS primary care ensuring patients are not forced to seek private treatments but have the option to do so if they wish.’
LaingBuisson’s Primary Care UK Market Landscape Report (first edition) says the private pay GP market is growing to meet demand. At mid-2024, there were over 550 services registered with the Care Quality Commission offering private GP consultations, 447 of them in private ‘clinics’ and 103 in independent hospitals.
Attitudes changing
The analysts’ executive chairman and report author William Laing believes attitudes towards paying for GP appointments are changing with people more receptive to buying care than they have been in generations, while employers are attracting top talent with benefits like private GP services.
His report notes that providers of group health cover and protection products, ranging from private medical insurance to health cash plans, critical illness and life insurance, have vigorously taken up the opportunity offered by web technology to add value to their products with low-cost online GP consultations as an add-on.
Employers for their part, have bought into the offer enthusiastically as a low-cost benefit which is not only valued by employees but can also reduce time off work.
Willing to pay
Mr Laing said: ‘People are willing to pay for quick access, ease of booking and the choice of appointment delivery – getting to choose between virtual or face-to-face appointments is not always available in the public sector. This attitude shift is clearly a response to long waiting times in the NHS and other problems in primary care.’
His 116-page analysis highlights how NHS GP practices are under growing strain, covering a huge majority of the population with a small proportion of the overall NHS budget. They have capacity issues, financial pressures, workforce stresses and an increasingly complex patient workload.
Earlier this month, Royal College of GPs’ (RCGP) chair Prof Kamila Hawthorne told 1,500 delegates at its annual conference in Liverpool that when she became an NHS GP it was normal to have a list size of between 1,600-1,800 patients.
But latest figures revealed the average is now 2,300. There were fewer qualified GPs and they were delivering 14% more appointments than five years ago.
She called on the new Government to take urgent action to review all general practice funding streams to channel more spending to areas of greatest need.
And she urged for a much greater share of NHS funding plus robust initiatives to recruit new GPs and encourage existing GPs to remain on the front line.
The college’s most recent ‘GP Voice’ survey of its members revealed more than 40% of GPs said they were planning to leave general practice within five years. Retirement was one reason for planning to quit, but the two biggest causes were work-life balance and stress.
Nearly 20% of GPs reported that most days they felt stressed and feared they could not cope – over 40% said they felt like that at least once or twice a week.
Only 10% of survey participants were contracted to work 40 hours or more, but 40% were putting in those hours regularly.
