Private GP · Kent
A doctor who knows you, watching the things that decide how long you stay well.
I watch what decides your long-term health and act when it changes, not when it becomes a problem. Feeling fine and being fine aren't the same thing, and you shouldn't have to guess which one you are.
The Long View
Normal is a range. You need a direction.
One blood test tells you where you sit against everyone else your age. It doesn't tell you which way you're going, and the direction is the part you can act on.
Normal is not the same as well.
A reference range only says you fall inside the spread of everyone else who was tested, and plenty of those people were not well themselves. It tells you that you are not yet obviously abnormal. It does not tell you what is right for you.
So this is a set of biomarkers chosen one by one, and the choosing is mine. I can tell you why each one is there, and what I left off the baseline and why.
Heart and circulation
ApoB, which counts the particles that actually drive arterial disease. Lp(a), which you inherit and only need measured once. Blood pressure on both arms, a resting ECG, and how stiff your arteries have become.
Metabolism and inflammation
Fasting insulin, which moves years before HbA1c does. I measure both, with hs-CRP for background inflammation. This is where the earliest changes show up.
How you are ageing
VO2 max, measured rather than estimated, and one of the strongest predictors of long-term health we have. Then body composition, grip strength and balance.
One reading tells you where you stand. Repeating it tells you something better.
A trend shows whether you are drifting the wrong way while there is still time to turn it, and it shows whether what we changed actually worked. That is why the same measures are repeated every year, by the same doctor, who remembers what they said last time.
What you're actually buying
When something big happens, I'm in the room.
The cancer diagnosis, your father's stroke, the scan that comes back wrong. I read the scan with you, I'm on the call with the oncologist, and I tell you what I'd do if you were my own family. I come to your house when that is what the situation needs.
What you are paying for is a doctor who already knows you, sitting on your side of the table, on the day the decisions get made and you cannot think straight.
How I decide
More is easy to sell. I built this the other way.
Every test has to clear two questions before it goes on the baseline. Is there good evidence behind it, and will the result change what we do. Both, or it stays off, and that holds whoever is asking, including me.
That list is not fixed. I review it as new evidence lands, so something earns its place when the research behind it is strong enough, and comes off when something better exists.
Leaving something off the baseline is not a refusal. If your history, your examination or your results make a test the right thing to do, we do it. It simply doesn't go on everyone's list by default.
What I won't do is cast a wide net and see what comes back. Test a well person on everything and something always looks wrong when nothing is, and then you're paying in worry, in money, and sometimes in a procedure you never needed.
I earn the same whether I investigate you or reassure you. So when I tell you that you don't need something, that is a clinical judgement weighed on the evidence, with nothing riding on which way it goes.
The relationship
The family doctor, restored.
Medicine used to be a relationship that lasted: one doctor who knew your history, your family, and what you were like when you were well. That is what I do. I take on fifty adults and their families, and look after them for the long run.
You get a doctor who knows you, who has the time to look properly, and a direct line. Eight in the morning to eight at night, seven days, answered within the hour on weekdays. When you need seeing rather than answering, I come to you.
You keep your NHS GP. This sits alongside the NHS, not instead of it.
"Personal and holistic. Understanding the whole picture, not a figures-only approach, and listening rather than working to a threshold."
Membership
What it costs.
One fee covers all of it. The annual measurements and the plan that comes out of them, the direct line, home visits, every letter and result you have collected turned into one clear record, and me in the room when something serious lands.
£400
a month, one adult
or £4,000 a year
£700
a month, a household of two adults
or £7,000 a year
Every child under 18 is included in the household fee.
The fee is the whole of it. Nothing is billed on top.
No charge per visit, per call or per home visit, and nothing for making a referral. Any investigation I recommend costs what it costs me, with no mark-up. Use my providers or arrange it yourself, and I read the results either way. A specialist's own fee is theirs, and you pay them directly.
The price you join at is the price you keep.
Whatever you pay when you join is held for two years. After that it rises with inflation and nothing else. It never resets to whatever the current rate happens to be. That hold is written into your membership terms, not just promised on a page.
Try the whole thing
You can try the whole thing and pay nothing.
Start with the Assessment at £995. Half a day, one doctor, and a written plan for the next ten years. Join within ninety days and that fee comes off your membership in full.
If the first ninety days of membership don't convince you, I refund the fee, less only the cost of any tests already done. You keep the assessment and you keep the plan.
The only thing you can lose here is the time it takes to find out.
A practice of fifty
There are fifty places. The fit has to be right.
I look after fifty adults and no more, so I can be fully present for each one. It is a fixed number, so when the book is full it stays full until someone leaves. The first step is a conversation.
Common questions
The questions people actually ask.
What does a private GP do that the NHS can't?
The NHS treats you when you're ill, and it does that well. What it doesn't have is the time to watch your health across the years and act before a problem starts. That's the gap this fills: one doctor who knows you, holds your whole picture, and has the time to get it right. More in what a private GP does that the NHS doesn't.
Is a private GP worth it?
It's worth it if what you want is continuity and time, not just a faster appointment. The value isn't how often you see me. It's that the same doctor tracks the few things that decide your long-term health and catches them early. Is a private GP worth it? walks through how to judge it for yourself.
How much does membership cost?
It's £4,000 a year, or £400 a month, for an individual, and £7,000 a year, or £700 a month, for a household of two adults with every child under 18 included. You pay for my time and judgment. Any investigation I recommend costs what it costs me, with no mark-up, and I charge nothing for making a referral. Membership and fees has the full detail, and how much a private GP costs in the UK sets out the wider market.
What happens if you are ill or away?
Cover is arranged with Dr Draugr, a private GP who has access to your record under a reciprocal arrangement. Planned absence is notified to you at least fourteen days ahead and is capped at six weeks a year, and my response commitments pause while I am away. Planning for my own absence is part of running a practice this size rather than an afterthought.
Do I keep my NHS GP?
Yes. Nothing here changes your NHS registration, and I'll write to your NHS GP if you want me to so the two records agree. This sits alongside the NHS rather than replacing it, and it is not urgent, emergency or out-of-hours care: for those you still call 999 or 111.
Is this the same as a private health check?
No. A health check is a snapshot sold as a product. This is management. The same doctor watches your numbers over time and acts early, before a number becomes a problem. Health checks and health management are not the same thing explains why that difference matters.
Is it worth it for a family?
For a family it often makes the most sense, because I see what runs through the household and can act early for all of you. When a child is unwell, the alternative is usually a two-week wait for an appointment, or a walk-in with a doctor who has never met them. That's the real comparison, and is a private GP membership worth it for a family? covers it.
The Long View, in two pages.
The few things that actually decide how long and how well you live, and how to tell the signal from the noise. I'll send it to you now.