Private providers

If you're seeing, or thinking about seeing, a private consultant or provider, this page explains what we can and can't help with.

This page covers queries about private providers specifically – a private provider is any consultant, hospital or other organisation that charges for your healthcare. It doesn’t cover NHS hospital care in general.

The sections below explain where we can help with a private referral, and where NHS GPs are not obliged to help – for example with tests or medication requested by a private provider, or with shared care.

Private referrals

Selecting a private provider

You need to choose which private provider you want to see yourself. If we recommended one particular provider over another, that could be seen as anti-competitive. We can give you information on which providers are available, but the choice has to be yours.

You can self-refer to a private provider

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a GP referral letter to see a private provider – you can contact them directly and ask to be seen. If it would help your self-referral, we can supply a summary printout of your medical record, free of charge, to take with you.

Referral letters if you’re already under a GP here

If you’re under the care of one of our GPs and you’ve agreed together that a referral is needed, they will write a referral letter for you to take to the private provider. This is free of charge.

Referral letters if you’re self-referring

If you’re self-referring, you can book directly with a private provider with no input from a GP. If the provider still asks for a referral letter before they’ll see you, we can supply one, but you may need a routine appointment with the GP first for them to discuss this with you.

Referred to the NHS but now want to go private

If your GP was going to refer you, or already has referred you, to an NHS hospital, but you’d now rather go private, we can supply the letter we would have sent to the NHS hospital instead. This is free of charge – discuss it with your GP at your appointment, or contact our admin team if you’ve already been referred.

Insurance forms that need completing before you’re seen

If your insurer or private provider requires an insurance form to be completed before they’ll see you, we can fill this in for you, but it is chargeable in line with our administrative fees.

Referral proformas

Referral proformas are different from referral letters. A referral letter is the traditional letter a GP writes to help a referral along, in use since the NHS began. A referral proforma is a custom form supplied by a particular provider, asking a long list of specific questions about your condition.

GPs are under no professional or contractual obligation to complete a referral proforma for any provider, NHS or private, and we will not complete referral proformas for private referrals. Where a referral has been agreed with you, the GP will write a standard referral letter with the relevant information instead – this fulfils their obligations to you in full.

If your referral is rejected

Some private providers reject a referral if a proforma hasn’t been completed, even where a perfectly appropriate referral letter has already been sent. If a provider needs more information, they are able to contact you directly to get it – we will not complete a proforma even if your referral has been rejected on this basis, for the reasons set out above.

If your chosen provider rejects your referral, you’re welcome to query this with them directly, or to choose an alternative provider who will accept it.

Tests and medication after you’ve been seen privately

A referral to a private provider, whether made at your request or at the GP’s suggestion, does not oblige the GP to carry out any tests or prescribe any medication that provider goes on to request. See the section below on investigations, medications and shared care for more detail.

The disclaimer you may be asked to sign

If you ask for a referral to a private provider, we will ask you to sign a statement confirming you understand that any tests or medication requests made by that provider afterwards may not be honoured by us, for the reasons explained on this page.

Contrary to popular belief, NHS GPs have no obligation to carry out investigations or prescribe medication following an appointment with a private provider. The sections below explain this in more detail.

Tests, medication and shared care

Investigations requested by a private provider

NHS GPs are not obliged to perform or arrange tests that are needed as a result of seeing a private provider – particularly where the test falls outside the care we ordinarily provide, or where interpreting the result would fall outside a GP’s usual knowledge and competence. A private provider who needs investigations as part of the care they give you must be able to arrange, provide or commission these themselves.

Examples include things like ECGs before starting certain medication, blood monitoring following private surgery, or blood tests as part of a private pre-operative assessment.

Medications requested by a private provider

NHS GPs are not obliged to prescribe medication requested as a result of seeing a private provider, and are not obliged to convert a private prescription into an NHS one. Where the medication requested is within the scope of care we’d normally provide, we will consider the request individually, and any prescription agreed will be processed as non-urgent, on our usual timescale.

We do not issue urgent medication at the request of any hospital, private or otherwise. If your private provider says you need medication urgently, they need to supply this themselves, as would happen following NHS hospital care.

What is shared care?

Shared care is where responsibility for a patient’s medication is split between a GP and a consultant. The consultant assesses whether the medication is suitable, carries out any baseline investigations, counsels the patient on it, and stabilises them on the correct dose. Once the patient is stable, the consultant asks the GP to take over prescribing and monitoring, while the patient remains under the consultant’s ongoing care. A written agreement setting out each party’s responsibilities is needed for shared care to be valid.

Shared care is voluntary for GPs

GPs are under no professional or contractual obligation to enter into a shared care arrangement with any provider, NHS or private. It is entirely voluntary, and we reserve the right to decline a request for shared care without giving a reason.

Our position on shared care with private providers

In line with current practice policy, we do not take on shared care arrangements with private providers. This is consistent with current BMA guidance (opens in a new tab). This does not affect your continuing right to NHS care.

When we won’t take on shared care

We won’t take on a shared care arrangement with any provider, NHS or private, if any of the following apply – most of these describe situations that, by definition, aren’t shared care at all:

There is no written shared care agreement
There is an agreement, but it doesn’t match the equivalent local or NHS shared care agreement for the same group of patients
The provider only assesses or diagnoses, and doesn’t prescribe medication itself
The provider hasn’t completed a proper assessment of your suitability for the medication, baseline investigations, or counselling on it
The provider hasn’t started you on the medication, adjusted your dose, and stabilised you on it
The provider has discharged you, or will discharge you, back to the GP’s sole care
The medication falls outside the GP’s knowledge, experience or competence to prescribe
The medication is being recommended for use outside its licensed indications

In each of these situations there is no proper specialist oversight, which puts patient safety at risk – so however convenient, or cheaper, it might seem to simply “get a prescription from the GP”, we won’t take on an arrangement that could put you at risk.

What your private provider should be providing

If you’re concerned you might not get the investigations or medication you need as part of your private care, we’d advise you to negotiate a package with your provider that includes this. If a provider tells you not to worry because “your GP will just do it”, that is not correct.

We respect every patient’s right to choose, and pay for, a private provider. But it is not an NHS GP’s responsibility to request tests or prescribe medication on a private provider’s behalf purely to reduce the cost of private care, or to reduce waiting times – proper clinical oversight and patient safety always come first. NHS guidance is clear that private and NHS care should be kept clearly separate, that patients should bear the full cost of private services, and that NHS resources should never subsidise private care.

We don't take on shared care with private providers

This keeps specialist oversight of your medication with the provider who started your treatment, and is in line with current BMA guidance. It doesn't affect your right to NHS care.

If your private provider asks us to refer you to their own NHS clinic

You may be asked by your private provider to get your GP to refer you to their own NHS clinic – often because you can’t afford to continue privately, or your insurer won’t cover you. A provider may say this is needed to “balance the books”, that they’re “not able to do this” themselves, or that they need “permission from the GP” for the referral to go ahead.

These reasons aren’t correct. A private consultant can make an NHS referral directly, without a further GP letter, in line with BMA and NHS England guidance. If you’re asked to get us to do this, please ask your provider to make the NHS referral themselves.

This page adapts patient guidance originally published by Ivy Grove Surgery, used here with their permission.