Brazen GPs who set up private practice inside their own NHS surgery
TWO GPs have set up a private clinic inside their NHS surgery to offer patients faster appointments for £145 a time.
It allows patients to jump the queue and be seen that same day – including on Saturdays – rather than waiting four weeks.
They can also benefit from longer consultations of either 20 or 40 minutes, as well as X-rays, physiotherapy and vaccinations.
The GPs running the clinic in Bournemouth insist services are only available to patients who aren’t already registered at the NHS surgery, as this would be breaking health service rules.
Under the terms set out in their contracts, family doctors are not allowed to offer private services to their own NHS patients as this would create a conflict of interest.
They are allowed to do private work but only on patients registered at another practice. But, there is nothing to stop patients de-listing themselves from the NHS surgery and signing up to the private clinic once they realise they will be seen far more promptly there.
It will also take the two GPs, Dr Tim Alder and Dr Jon Eche barrieta, away from their NHS patients, who could face even longer delays for an appointment. Waiting times for the NHS-run Poole Road Medical Practice are currently around four weeks, as is typical in the UK.
Patients can alternatively queueup from 8am for the walk-in clinic, which runs from 8.30am to 10.20am.
The doctors run the Dorset Private GP clinic from inside the practice, and its website promises ‘thorough, efficient and prompt’ care.
They would not confirm how they split their time but a spokesman confirmed the NHS surgery would hire locum cover if needed. The scheme is representative of a growing anger among GPs, who claim they aren’t being given enough funding from the Government to treat the growing numbers of elderly patients and to offer appointments seven days a week.
Fees at the private practice range from £80 for a 20-minute appointment, £145 for 40 minutes, to up to £450 for a health check.
It is open from 8am to 8pm Mon- day to Friday and from 8am to 12pm on Saturdays.
By comparison, the surgery is only open between 8.30am and 6.30 pm Monday to Friday and closes for a one-hour lunch.
Dr Alder said the private clinic was the only way he could guarantee his NHS surgery wouldn’t be forced to close and warned others would follow suit. He said: ‘The Government is not trying to save general practice and now it is on the brink of collapse.
‘We have to try something different now to make ourselves stronger in anticipation that NHS primary care will be even worse.’
The GP refused to answer questions from the Daily Mail about how he splits his time and whether he believes the clinic is ethical.
Martyn Webster, manager of Healthwatch Dorset, a local group representing patients, said: ‘At a time when we are hearing so much about how overworked GPs are and how they don’t have time to give their patients the care they need, it seems that some actually do have time to spare and that time is for sale to those who can afford to buy it.’
£145 for an appointment