Category
Industry Context & Overview
What private general practice is, who uses it and how big the UK market is.
Market Understanding
3 guides
How many GPs are there in the UK, and how many are private?
There were 40,758 fully qualified GPs in NHS general practice in England at the end of August 2026, and roughly 49,000 to 50,000 across the UK, working from about 7,700 practices. There is no official count of private GPs. Our informed estimate is roughly 2,000 to 3,000 GPs regularly providing privately funded care, most alongside NHS work. The best hard data is a 2026 BJGP Open study that found 358 privately funded general practices in England in April 2024, half of them in London.
What is private general practice?
Private general practice is GP care that the NHS does not pay for: the patient, their employer or sometimes an insurer pays, usually per appointment or through a membership. The doctor follows the same GMC standards as in the NHS, and the service is regulated separately, by the CQC in England. Patients almost always keep their NHS GP and NHS entitlement, and private GPs work without most NHS systems such as EPS and e-Referrals.
Why use a private GP?
People use a private GP mainly for quick appointments, longer consultations, seeing the same doctor and convenient times, often with tests arranged in one place. It costs money, prescriptions and tests are usually extra, and a private GP cannot replace your NHS GP or use most NHS systems. You keep your NHS entitlement, so the best approach is to use both and let the private GP keep your NHS GP informed.
Explore other topics
Guides on every part of running a private general practice, from regulation to growing your list.
