About

A doctor who knows you already.

Nearly twenty years across the NHS and private practice, and still in both, every week.

Dr Ben Ingram, private GP in Kent
One doctor, fifty adults Serving Kent and the South East CQC registered BSc MBBS MRCGP Still an NHS GP partner today
  • MRCGP, Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
  • MBBS, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
  • BSc Biochemistry, King's College London

Why I built this practice.

I built this practice because general practice has lost the two things that change outcomes, time and continuity, and faster appointments don't put them back. Here I have both, and I am free to act on good evidence when it arrives rather than waiting the ten or fifteen years it takes to reach a guideline. Most of my work sits in cardiovascular risk and metabolic health, where the earliest warnings are and where acting early changes the most.

I still work in the NHS every week. I'm a GP Partner, a PCN Clinical Director, and Co-Chair of the Medway and Swale GP Federation. So when you need a specialist opinion I can navigate both systems, and show you how to navigate them, to get you to the right person in the right place. Most private doctors work in one system. I work in both.

A clinic can match anyone's response time. What no one can copy is a doctor who knows you: your history, your circumstances, what you're aiming at, and what your own numbers have been doing for years. That's the whole model. Fifty adults, each one known properly.

Most people don't need more healthcare. They need one doctor who doesn't have to start from scratch every time.

How I got here.

A Kent estuary at low tide, a working boat on the mud and a church tower inland

Born and raised in Kent, and I've never lived anywhere else.

King's College London

Biochemistry

I read it because I wanted to understand how the body actually works. I finished the degree knowing the lab wasn't for me: in a lab you are a long way from the person the work is for.

Barts, then Kent

Medicine

Medical school at Barts, then training at Medway Maritime and around the county. The plan was emergency medicine, and I spent a year doing it. It is the right job for someone without small children at home, and I had three.

2018

Partner, in the practice that trained me

What I gave up in adrenaline I got back in continuity, which turned out to be the part of medicine I actually cared about. There are families on my list I've now looked after for the best part of twenty years.

Ringside

Medical Officer for Boxing Organisations

Registered with the British Boxing Board of Control and accredited with England Boxing, covering shows.

Find it early, explain it plainly, and do something about it.

Proactive, not reactive

Most medicine waits for something to go wrong and then treats it. I look for what is building while it is still cheap to change, and I act then.

One person, not an average

Guidelines are written for populations, and you are not a population. Your history, your family, your training, your work and your own results are what decide the plan.

Evidence as it lands

I read the research and act on it when it is strong enough, rather than waiting the years it takes to become a guideline.

Restraint, so it stays medicine

Every test has to clear two questions. Is the evidence behind it strong, and will the result change what we do. Both, or it stays off, and that holds whoever is asking, including me.

No question is too small to ask me. The ones people apologise for are often the ones worth asking, and you get a straight answer in words that mean something, not a leaflet and a follow-up in six weeks.

A shingle beach at dusk with the tide far out and a groyne running into the water

What members say.

Personal and holistic. Understanding the whole picture, not a figures-only approach, and listening rather than working to a threshold.

Andrew W. · member

Being able to speak about issues and concerns at length, and on a more personal level. Having things like blood test results explained in depth.

Kerry W. · member

It helped me understand some of the causes of metabolic syndrome, and the importance of the core elements to overcome the symptoms. I developed a knowledge of how the basic functions of your body respond to diet and exercise to carry me forward.

Paul R. · member

See whether I'm the right doctor for you.

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A short guide

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.

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