How do I find patients as a private GP?

Ways to attract patients

There are a number of ways you can attract patients.

Website

Developing a ‘digital front door’ in the form of a practice website is a a good idea when you start out.

With most of the UK now accessing the internet regularly, ensuring that patients can find you quickly and easily via Google is a good starting point - whether that is searching for one of your GPs, your practice’s name or simply for a “private GP near me”.

Creating a website is less complicated that it used to be. Read our guide on how to create your practice website.

You will also want to set up a Google My Business Profile which will help your online presence and you might want to consider setting up some social media accounts for your practice.

If using social media you need to keep in mind the GMC guidance

When advertising your services, you must make sure the information you publish is factual and can be checked, and does not exploit patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge.

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Networking and referrals

Most typical private GPs build a following through word-of-mouth referrals.

This can be through patients telling their friends about the service, or other clinicians (consultants, physios etc.) recommending your service to their patients.

There are a range of organisations and groups you can join to network with other healthcare professionals to build this referral base such as 'specialist information'.

You may also want to consider offering a ‘refer a friend’ scheme to encourage patients to tell their network about you in exchange for a discounted service or product.

How can you enhance this? A quick win is to make it easy for patients or clinicians to pass on details of your service with physical branding such as business cards that can easily be shared, or a regular newsletter.

You may also want to make existing services (other private practices or even NHS practices) aware of what you do and how you can help their patients if they are unable to do so.

Advertising

The GMC has rigorous guidelines for the marketing of private medical services. These include the requirements that marketing must be: Both factual and verifiable.

When advertising your services, you must follow the regulatory codes and guidelines set by the Committee of Advertising Practice.

You must make sure the information you publish is factual and can be checked, and does not exploit patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge.

Your marketing must be responsible. It must not minimise or trivialise the risks of interventions and must not exploit patients’ vulnerability. You must not claim that interventions are risk free.

If patients will need to have a medical assessment before you can carry out an intervention, your marketing must make this clear.

You must not mislead about the results you are likely to achieve. You must not falsely claim or imply that certain results are guaranteed from an intervention.

You must not use promotional tactics in ways that could encourage people to make an ill-considered decision.

You must not provide your services as a prize.

You must not knowingly allow others to misrepresent you or offer your services in ways that would conflict with this guidance.

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Once you are sure anything you are thinking of advertising complies:

You could consider direct forms of advertising. This can range from print adverts in magazines or newspapers, radio or TV adverts or online paid advertising (PPC). Paid advertising can be very effective, particularly online, but it can also be expensive.  

When running adverts, we’d recommend investing in advertising that is trackable so you can monitor the effectiveness of your marketing and keep a close eye on what you are spending. Conversion rates of online ads in Adwords or QR code scans are a good way to do this.  

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