An NHS practice in Dorset has launched a private GP service offering appointments costing up to £145.
The Dorset Private GP service has been set up by partners at the Poole Road Medical Centre in Bournemouth, and offers private appointments from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 12pm on Saturdays, alongside the practice’s NHS work.
The company says it offers ‘traditional general practice consultations with established NHS GPs, in a comfortable setting’.
Patients pay £80 for a 20-minute face-to-face appointment, which is offered as standard ‘rather than the minimum 7-8 minute NHS appointment’.
Alternatively they can pay £145 for a longer, 40-minute appointment.
Dr Tim Alder and colleagues say that they have ‘set up a private GP service because it gives us the opportunity to offer patients the kind of GP service we believe in; thorough, efficient and prompt general practitioner care’.
The company website explains that ‘sadly at current times the NHS restricts us from treating our own patients for GP services, but this may change soon so please keep in touch’.
