As a private GP, should I charge separately for pathology and tests?

What can I charge separately for?

You can decide what you are willing to include as part of the consultation price and what will incur additional fees. It is common for private GPs to charge for anything that incurs extra cost to the practice such as:

How to charge for consultations

The GMC guidance on charging must be followed.

You must be honest and open in any financial arrangements with patients.

If you charge fees you must:

1. tell patients about your fees, if possible before seeking their consent to treatment
2. tell patients if any part of the fee goes to another healthcare professional.

You must not exploit patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge when charging fees for treatments and services.

We recommend that the consultation time is invoiced and paid for at the time of booking. The consultation time should allow for the writing of the medical record.

For example, a 15-minute consultation will more typically represent 10 minutes with the patient, plus 5 minutes for completing tasks related to the consultation.

If your consultation runs over the allocated consultation time, any incremental time should be considered billable. This must be agreed with the patient at the time and their consent to charge them should be sought.

Administrative matters outside a consultation would generally incur a fee eg if the patient retrospectively submits an insurance form for completion post-appointment.  You should insure that you patient understands that this is how you operate.

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How to charge for additional services?

In instances where you know there will be an additional cost to the patient, such as the cost of a vaccine for a vaccine appointment, ideally this should be billed upfront.

In cases where an additional cost is incurred during the consultation, such as the cost for a test, costs should be discussed with the patient during the consultation and payment taken before leaving.

Any additional costs should be made clear to the patient upon booking and be visible in your T&Cs.

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