How do I get feedback from patients for my private work?

Two reasons to collect feedback

Patient feedback does two jobs in private practice. It is evidence for your own revalidation, and it is part of how a registered service shows it is safe and improving. Your appraiser will expect feedback from all your work, including private sessions, not just your NHS patients.

It also matters commercially. Private patients choose to come back and recommend you, so knowing what they think is part of running the service.

What the GMC requires

Under the GMC’s guidance on supporting information:

• At least once in each revalidation cycle you must reflect on feedback from patients “collected using a formal feedback exercise”.
• Across the cycle, the feedback should cover your whole scope of practice. You do not need a separate formal exercise for every role.
• At each appraisal you should also reflect on any other feedback you have, such as cards, letters and unsolicited comments.
• You must act on feedback where appropriate and discuss how it informed your practice.

Colleague feedback follows a similar rule: at least once per cycle, from across your whole scope of practice, ideally using a validated questionnaire that is independently administered. Include colleagues from your private work, such as clinic staff and consultants you refer to.

If your designated body does not provide a tool, the GMC says you may need to find one yourself, for example through an independent provider. See appraisal and revalidation for private GPs.

Choosing a method

The GMC gives you room to choose. A structured questionnaire may suit, but so may comment cards, structured interviews, focus groups or a remote tool like an app.

Method	Strengths	Limitations
Independently run questionnaire	Validated questions, anonymous, and your appraiser will recognise it	A fee, and a set number of responses to collect
Short survey sent after each appointment	Continuous, cheap and good for service improvement	Questions you write yourself may not count as a formal exercise. Check with your appraiser.
Comment cards in the clinic	Simple and works for face-to-face services	Low response rates
Structured phone calls to a sample of patients	Rich detail, useful for small or specialist services	Someone other than you should make the calls

If you see few patients

Many private GPs see fewer patients than in the NHS. The GMC says your approach should be proportionate to the number of patients you see. If a tool recommends more responses than you can get, the feedback is still useful, especially the free-text comments, and you should discuss it with your appraiser and RO.

Doing it well

• Keep it anonymous where you can. Patients are more honest when they know you cannot see who said what.
• Ask about the whole experience: booking, waiting, cost clarity and follow-up, not just the consultation.
• Handle the data properly. If responses can identify patients, treat them as personal data and cover their use in your privacy notice. See GDPR in private practice.
• Close the loop. CQC guidance on Regulation 17 expects feedback to be listened to, recorded and responded to, and says you should tell people how their feedback has led to changes.
• Route complaints properly. If feedback is really a complaint, handle it through your complaints procedure. See managing patient complaints.

Online reviews and your reputation

New patients often check reviews before booking, so it is reasonable to invite every patient to leave an honest review. The rules are strict about how you do it.

Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 makes it automatically unlawful to:

• write, commission or post fake reviews, positive or negative
• publish incentivised reviews without making the incentive clear
• publish reviews, or ratings based on them, in a misleading way

If you publish reviews on your own website, you must also take reasonable steps to prevent and remove fake and concealed incentivised ones. The CMA’s guidance explains what this means. The safest approach is to ask everyone, offer nothing in return and show reviews as they come.

If you list on a third-party site, check how it decides who can leave a review. Google and Doctify each set their own rules. On booking marketplaces such as Quokka Health, where patients compare named clinicians on price and availability and book online, reviews come only from patients who actually booked.

Replying to a review

Confidentiality still applies. The GMC’s guidance on responding to criticism says you must not reveal personal information about a patient or give an account of their care without their consent. You should usually limit a public reply to explaining your duty of confidentiality. You may give general information about how your service normally works.

A short, polite reply that invites the reviewer to contact you directly is usually best. Your defence organisation can advise before you reply to anything difficult. For advertising rules on testimonials, see advertising a private GP service.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The GMC requirements and consumer law on reviews apply across the UK. The CQC’s Regulation 17 applies in England. Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and RQIA set their own expectations for independent services seeking patient views.