How to start a private GP practice in the UK: the complete guide

Choose your route

“Starting a private practice” covers very different set-ups. Decide which one you are building before you spend money.

Route	What you set up	Registration
Sessional work for a private provider or online service	Indemnity, appraisal and your own tax affairs	The provider’s
Practising privileges at a clinic or hospital	As above, plus your own patients and fees in someone else’s premises	Usually the host’s. Check what they cover.
Your own service, in person, remote or both	Everything in this guide	Your own, in the nation where you provide care

If you also work in the NHS, check what your contract or partnership agreement allows. NHS GPs cannot offer their own registered patients private services that the NHS provides. See working privately and in the NHS, restrictions on seeing private patients and practising privileges.

Step 1: Plan your services and prices

• Decide which services you will offer first, and which you will refer on. Each extra service can add equipment, training, indemnity and registration requirements. See choosing your services.
• Look at local demand and competitors, and choose a location. See choosing a location.
• Set prices and test them with a break-even sum. See how much to charge and pricing and break-even.
• Write a short business plan. See writing a business plan.

Step 2: Indemnity and your GMC position

• Indemnity. The state-backed scheme for general practice in England covers NHS work only. Tell your medical defence organisation exactly what you will do, including remote consultations, and get cover confirmed in writing. See indemnity for private work.
• Licence and revalidation. You need a licence to practise and a connection to a designated body, or a suitable person, for revalidation. Your appraisal must cover your whole scope of practice, including private work. If private work becomes your only work, you will need a new revalidation connection. See appraisal and revalidation.
• DBS. Regulators expect an enhanced check with barred lists, and the CQC wants it to be less than 12 months old when you apply. If you are self-employed, you can apply for your own enhanced check through a DBS umbrella body. See DBS checks.

Step 3: Set up the business

• Structure. Sole trader, partnership or limited company. The legal entity is what registers with the regulator. See should I set up a company?
• Tax and VAT. Most private GP care is VAT-exempt, but some reports and medicals are not. See tax implications and VAT.
• Data protection. Pay the ICO data protection fee before you hold patient data. At the time of review it was £52 a year for micro organisations and £78 for small and medium ones. See registering with the ICO.
• Insurance and funding. Beyond indemnity, you will probably need public liability cover, employers’ liability once you employ anyone, and cover for premises and equipment. See essential insurance and funding a new practice.

Step 4: Register with your regulator

Private healthcare regulation is devolved. Register in the nation where you provide care.

Nation	Regulator	What to know
England	Care Quality Commission (CQC)	Register if you carry on regulated activities, usually treatment of disease, disorder or injury, unless a narrow exemption applies. Companies and partnerships need a registered manager. The CQC says assessing an application can take several months. There is no separate application fee. The annual fee for a private doctor with one location was £1,867 at the time of review.
Wales	Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW)	Register as an independent clinic if you regularly provide private-only medical services from premises in Wales, or as an independent medical agency for remote services. HIW aims to complete registration within 12 weeks of accepting a complete application. Fees at the time of review were £500 to apply (plus £100 for a manager, unless you are a sole trader) and £500 a year.
Scotland	Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)	A private GP service in premises is an independent clinic. HIS’s registration page says processing takes a minimum of six months once an application is complete. Its 2026/27 fees were £3,996 to register, then an annual fee from £1,372 for a single-handed practitioner.
Northern Ireland	Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA)	Registers independent clinics where medical practitioners provide services, and independent medical agencies. RQIA’s guidance for private doctor services expects each doctor to have a responsible officer. Check its current fees before you apply.

Regulators reject or delay incomplete applications. The CQC tells applicants to submit only when everything is in place: a DBS check less than 12 months old, a statement of purpose, the required policies, and premises ready for a visit. See do I need to register with the CQC?, how to register with the CQC and how long registration takes.

Step 5: Premises, equipment and safety

• Premises that allow clinical use, with handwashing, privacy and accessibility. See choosing premises and accessibility.
• Equipment for your services, and emergency medicines based on a risk assessment. See equipment and the emergency drugs cabinet.
• Clinical waste, COSHH, and health and safety. See medical waste and health and safety.

Step 6: Choose your systems

• Clinical record. Look for coded notes, prescribing checks, results, letters and billing. See how to choose a record system and Semble alternatives.
• Prescribing. NHS EPS is not available for private prescriptions, so choose between paper and a private e-prescribing service. If you will prescribe Schedule 2 or 3 controlled drugs, apply for a private controlled drug prescriber code, and use the private forms. See the private prescribing checklist.
• Pathology. Open an account with a private laboratory, and agree how samples are collected and how results reach you. See arranging pathology.
• Letters to NHS GPs. Decide how you will send consultation summaries securely. See sending notes to the NHS GP.
• Booking and payments. Online booking, taking payment when patients book, invoicing, and a link to your accounts software. See collecting payment.

Fewer systems mean fewer logins and fewer gaps. A good example of a system built for a new private GP practice is Jump, which combines SNOMED-coded notes, prescribing checked against dm+d, private e-prescribing through SignatureRx, online booking, invoicing with Stripe and Xero, and letters to the NHS GP via MESH. Semble, EMIS Web with Hero Health, and Meddbase are credible alternatives, so trial more than one.

Step 7: Policies and governance

Your regulator will expect policies that match how you really work: safeguarding, consent, chaperones, complaints, infection control, prescribing, significant events, information governance and recruitment. Plan your first clinical audit before you open. See clinical governance, managing complaints and the inspection evidence checklist.

Step 8: Find your first patients

Be findable before you open, with a website showing prices and booking, a Google Business Profile, and directory listings. Build referral relationships, and keep within GMC and advertising rules. Start with a limited number of sessions you can fill, and add more as bookings grow. See getting your first patients and the rules on advertising.

Costs and timeline

Premises and staff drive most of the cost. The fixed fees, such as company formation, the ICO fee, DBS and the regulator’s annual fee, are small by comparison. See the line-by-line start-up budget.

When	Main tasks
9 to 6 months before	Route, services, business plan, indemnity conversation, structure and accountant
6 to 3 months before	Premises, DBS, ICO, policies, statement of purpose, choice of systems, regulator application
3 months to opening	Equipment, pathology, prescribing, website and booking, referral contacts, testing
Registration granted	Confirm indemnity is live, test the whole patient journey, open bookings

What changes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

• Regulator: HIW, HIS or RQIA instead of the CQC, each with its own regulations, standards, fees and timescales.
• Controlled drugs: private prescriptions for Schedule 2 and 3 drugs use a different form in each nation: FP10PCD, WP10PCD, PPCD(1) or PCD1.
• Criminal record checks: DBS covers England and Wales. Scotland uses Disclosure Scotland, and Northern Ireland uses AccessNI.
• Business rates relief: each nation runs its own scheme.

The GMC, the ICO, HMRC and the advertising rules apply across the UK.

Common mistakes

• Signing a lease before checking registration. The regulator registers your premises as well as you, so check that the site is suitable before you commit.
• Generic policies. Templates that mention staff or services you don’t have slow your application and count against you at inspection.
• Assuming indemnity follows you. Cover for NHS work does not extend to private work. Get written confirmation for each service you offer.
• No plan for NHS communication. Decide how results, prescriptions and letters reach the patient’s NHS GP before your first consultation.
• Too little cash. Bookings build slowly. Keep enough to cover several months of running costs.

Use the Launch Pack

The free Private GP Launch Pack turns this guide into a working plan. It includes a 90-day checklist to tick off, a start-up budget worksheet with typical ranges, and a map of which body regulates what in each nation. There is no sign-up.