According to research published by LaingBuisson, 13% of adult GP consultations in the UK are now private – up from just 3% in 2009. And it doesn’t seem to be a niche trend. It’s becoming a new standard in how people access primary care.
If you run a private clinic, it’s clear that demand for private primary care is growing – the data is unambiguous on that. But the real question is whether your practice is set up to make the most of the growing need for private primary care.
Why private primary care continues to grow
The NHS does an extraordinary job under significant pressure, but primary care capacity hasn’t kept pace with demand. According to the RCGP, England had the equivalent of 1,557 fewer full-time qualified GPs in September 2024 compared to in September 2015, even as the patient list has continued to grow. The result, for many patients, is longer waits for non-urgent appointments and less consistency in which doctor they see.
Private general practice has grown to complement that, and the growth has been substantial. LaingBuisson estimates the private GP market is now worth £1.6 billion, with over 550 CQC-registered services offering private GP consultations across the UK.
Getting an appointment, fast, is top of the list for most patients. Ipsos polling from 2024 found that nearly two thirds of Britons aren’t confident they could book a GP appointment quickly at a time that suits them. But once people experience private care, other things keep them coming back: longer appointments, the ability to see the same doctor each visit, and faster routes to tests or a specialist. People aren’t necessarily abandoning the NHS – they’re filling a gap when the timing or circumstances don’t work for them.
There’s also a growing group who aren’t paying out of pocket at all. The Association of British Insurers reported a record 4.7 million people were covered by employer-funded private medical insurance in 2023 – the highest figure in over 30 years – with workplace claims up 26% year on year. That’s a large, ready-made pool of potential patients who already have the budget and the inclination. The only question is which clinic gets their business.
How NHS and private primary care are working together
A pattern researchers have started calling ‘double-running’ shows how naturally private and NHS care can work together. Patients use private healthcare for the fast-turnaround elements – a diagnosis, a referral letter, a second opinion – while continuing to rely on the NHS for ongoing treatment and complex care. Far from competing with the NHS, private practices often play a supporting role, taking the pressure off for time-sensitive cases and feeding patients back into the broader system once the immediate need is addressed.
For private clinics, this dynamic creates something valuable – a patient who returns. Someone who used your practice to get a referral sorted quickly will come back the next time they need something seen to promptly, provided the experience was good. In that sense, every first appointment carries more weight than it might appear.
Where clinics tend to lose those patients isn’t in the consultation room itself. The clinical care in most private practices is excellent. It’s what happens around it – a booking system that feels dated, an invoice that takes weeks to arrive, no contact of any kind in the weeks after the appointment. In a market where patients have used sleek digital-first services and found them genuinely easy, the bar for the operational side of private primary care has risen.
How to set a high standard in private GP clinics
Running a private clinic well has always required more than clinical skill. As patient volumes grow, the operational elements matter more than they once did, and practice management software is increasingly the thing that holds it together.
Booking and appointment management
Online booking is the obvious starting point. Patients want to book when it suits them, not just during the hours your reception is staffed. A system that lets someone secure an appointment at 10pm, get an instant confirmation, and receive a reminder the day before does more than cut down on no-shows – it makes a good first impression before anyone has even walked through the door.
Patient records and continuity of care
Records and continuity go hand in hand. When clinicians have full visibility of a patient’s history – previous notes, test results, prescriptions, referrals – consultations are faster, more confident, and the patient feels genuinely looked after rather than starting from scratch each time.
Billing and payments
Billing is one of those areas that rarely gets discussed in conversations about patient experience, but it probably should. A smooth clinical appointment followed by a confusing invoice three weeks later chips away at your patient’s goodwill. When invoicing is automated, payment can be taken online, and the reconciliation happens without anyone having to chase it manually, the whole exchange feels more professional – which, for a patient paying a premium, matters.
Follow-up patient care
Follow-up is where most patient loyalty gets built or lost. The clinics that develop strong, returning patient bases tend to be the ones that don’t go quiet after the appointment ends. Automated re-scheduling, post-visit communications, and timely check-ins can mean the difference between a patient who thinks of you when something comes up and one who just searches for the nearest available clinic again.
Reporting and analytics
And then there’s data. Knowing which services are in demand, which slots are consistently empty, and where your referrals are coming from – that information is available in most modern clinic management systems, and it genuinely changes how you run the business.
It’s time to prep for growing private healthcare demand
Private GP use has grown steadily and shows little sign of slowing. An ageing population, expanding employer health schemes, and patients who’ve experienced the convenience of same-day appointments tend to keep using them.
For clinic owners and managers, that’s a real and present opportunity. The practices that make the most of it will be the ones that can handle the influx without the wheels coming off operationally – where a new patient can book at midnight and be seen the next day, get a clear invoice by the end of the week, and hear from the clinic again before they’ve had reason to look elsewhere.
Interested in how the right software can help your clinic handle growing demand? Find out more about our leading practice management solutions.
