The General Medical Council (GMC): registration, fees and revalidation for private GPs

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates in the UK. For a private GP it does exactly what it does for an NHS GP: it keeps the register and your licence to practise, sets the standards in Good medical practice, runs revalidation and investigates concerns. It regulates you as a doctor. It does not regulate your clinic.

That distinction matters once you leave the NHS framework. Some of the support that NHS employment provides for your registration (a designated body, a responsible officer and an appraisal system) may no longer come automatically, and you have to arrange it yourself.

What the General Medical Council does

The GMC was formed in 1858. Its mandate comes from the Medical Act 1983 and, for physician associates and anaesthesia associates, the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024. The GMC describes five jobs:

• setting the standards of patient care and professional behaviour that doctors, PAs and AAs must meet
• making sure they get the education and training they need
• checking who is eligible to work, and that they keep meeting its standards throughout their careers
• giving guidance on what is expected
• investigating concerns where patient safety or public confidence in doctors may be at risk, and acting if needed

The GMC began regulating physician associates and anaesthesia associates on 13 December 2024, which is relevant if you employ either in a private service.

The GMC is itself overseen by the Professional Standards Authority, which reviews its performance every year, reports to Parliament and reviews every final fitness to practise decision.

The GMC and your clinic’s regulator are different things

GPs setting up privately often confuse the GMC with the regulator of their service. The GMC looks at individual doctors: your registration, your conduct and your fitness to practise. Your clinic, as a provider of regulated activities, answers to the care regulator for the nation it operates in: the CQC in England, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland or the RQIA in Northern Ireland. See what the CQC is for the English position. GMC registration does not register your service, and registering your service does not replace your GMC licence. You need both.

Registration, the licence and the GP Register

To practise medicine in the UK you must be registered with the GMC and hold a licence to practise. Anyone can check a doctor’s status on the GMC’s online medical register, so expect patients and the clinics you work with to look you up.

The GP Register is the list of doctors eligible for appointment as a GP in the UK. The GMC says that since 1 April 2006 all doctors working as a GP in the UK health service must be on it, other than doctors in training. This includes locums. NHS work also needs a performers list entry, which private-only work doesn’t. The GMC’s wording is about the health service, so if you work only privately, check what your indemnity provider and any clinic you work for expect. In practice, if you call yourself a GP when dealing with patients, your register entry should show that you are on the GP Register.

GMC fees in 2026

You pay a fee to join the register, then an annual fee due on the anniversary of your registration. The rates from 1 April 2026 are:

Fee	From 1 April 2026
Annual fee, registration with a licence to practise	£481
Annual fee, registration without a licence	£172
Discounted annual fee with a licence (recently qualified or recently moved to full registration)	£184
Revalidation annual return fee, doctors without a designated body	£307
Revalidation assessment, doctors without a designated body	£1,357

There is a 50% discount on the annual fee if your worldwide income is under the income threshold (£38,500 from 1 April 2026) and you don’t already get a discounted fee. That can help in the first year of a new practice, when your earnings are low. The test is worldwide income, so count all your work.

Revalidation for private GPs

Every licensed doctor must revalidate to keep their licence. Each year you collect supporting information, including feedback from patients and colleagues, your learning and any complaints, and discuss it at an annual whole practice appraisal. Usually every five years, your responsible officer or suitable person makes a recommendation to the GMC, which then decides whether to revalidate you. See appraisal and revalidation as a private GP for the practical side.

There are three routes. It is your responsibility to keep your connection up to date in GMC Online when your roles change:

1. A designated body. If you still work for an organisation that is a designated body, for example through NHS sessions, your connection may be with that organisation. The GMC publishes an A to Z of designated bodies and a connection tool to help you work it out.
2. A suitable person. This is a licensed doctor the GMC has approved to make revalidation recommendations where there is no responsible officer. Typically they run clinical governance or appraisal in the organisation where the doctor works. Or they are the responsible officer of a designated body the doctor works for but is not connected to. The GMC publishes a list.
3. No connection. You still need an annual appraisal, but you arrange it yourself and report directly to the GMC.

If you have no connection

Many private-only GPs end up on this route, and it involves the most work. The GMC says your appraiser must:

• hold registration with a licence to practise and have a connection to a designated body or approved suitable person
• be recently trained in appraisal and have done at least five appraisals for that designated body or suitable person in the previous 12 months
• have no conflict of interest with you, and understand the work you do
• verify your supporting information and complete the appraiser report form (REV12)

You also submit an annual return through GMC Online and pay the annual return fee. The return covers your practice history, registration history, a fitness to practise declaration and your appraisals. The GMC gives at least three months’ notice of the due date. If it then asks for more information, you have 28 days to send it. Every five years you sit an assessment. Weigh the fees and the effort against joining an organisation that can offer you a connection.

Good medical practice and private work

Good medical practice 2024 is the GMC’s core set of standards. It is organised into four domains: knowledge, skills and development; patients, partnerships and communication; colleagues, culture and safety; and trust and professionalism. The GMC says the standards describe good practice and are not a set of rules: you apply them using your judgement. If a concern is raised, it considers how serious it is, factors in your systems and working environment, and how you responded, including insight and remediation.

Two areas come up often in private general practice:

• Remote consultations. The same standards apply to remote and face-to-face care. If you can’t meet the GMC’s standards for safe prescribing remotely, you should switch to a face-to-face consultation. Photos and recordings become part of the record. The GMC says to follow the UK health departments’ guidance on keeping records whether or not you work in the NHS. See private prescribing and governance.
• Working alone. Without a practice team around you, it is easier to slip on continuity of care, raising concerns and keeping up to date. Build peer review, audit and feedback into your year. They also give you the supporting information you need for appraisal.

If a concern is raised with the GMC

Concerns can come from patients, the public, employers, the police or other organisations, and they can be about your private work just as much as NHS work. If a concern is raised about you, the GMC advises you to contact your medical defence organisation straight away. That is one reason to check that your indemnity covers your private work.

At the end of an investigation the GMC can close the case (sometimes with advice), issue a warning, agree undertakings with you, or refer you to a hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). The MPTS is operationally separate from the GMC and accountable directly to Parliament. If a tribunal finds your fitness to practise impaired, it can impose conditions or suspend you. In the most serious cases it can erase you from the register, and you then cannot work as a doctor in the UK for at least five years. While an investigation runs, an interim orders tribunal can impose conditions or suspend you. The GMC usually asks your employers, normally through your responsible officer, whether they have other concerns. It does not normally investigate matters more than five years old.

A GMC checklist for private GPs

• Licence to practise and GP Register status showing correctly on the medical register
• Annual fee paid on your anniversary, and the income discount claimed if you qualify
• Your revalidation connection checked with the GMC’s connection tool and updated in GMC Online whenever your roles change
• An annual whole practice appraisal that covers your private work, with patient and colleague feedback
• Indemnity that covers all of your work, and your defence organisation’s number to hand
• A remote-consultation and prescribing policy that reflects GMC guidance