When to see a private GP

You have a symptom, a form, or a screening idea, and several doors in front of you. One is an in-person private GP at 117a Harley Street. The others are A&E, NHS 111, a Health MOT, and a visa or occupational appointment. They all sound medical. They are not interchangeable, and choosing the wrong door is how people sit in a GP room with embassy papers, or wait on Harley Street with chest pain that belonged in an ambulance.

The question is not whether private care is better. It is which visit answers the problem you have today.

When is an in-person private GP the right visit?

An in-person private GP is for a current problem that needs a doctor who can listen, examine you, and agree a plan in the same room.

You do not need a diagnosis before you arrive, and you do not need to know which specialty the problem will sit in later. A new cough, a rash that will not settle, abdominal pain, joint pain, blood pressure worries, low mood, sleep trouble, a medicine question, or a review of something that has been dragging on are the ordinary reasons people come.

Medical Express Clinic has provided that care at 117a Harley Street since 1984. You sit with a doctor, not a remote advice line. There is no fixed time limit on the consultation, so the history does not have to be squeezed into ten minutes. If an examination would change the plan, it happens there. If blood collection, an ECG or spirometry would change the plan that day, those can often be done in the same building. Laboratory work goes through UKAS-accredited providers. X-ray, ultrasound, MRI and CT are arranged at partner centres. They are not performed at 117a.

You do not need to register. Appointments run seven days a week, including bank holidays, either booked or as a walk-in subject to capacity. Monday to Friday the doors are open 09:00 to 18:00, and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 to 14:00. Same-day appointments are often available but not guaranteed, whereas booking online guarantees a listed slot and usually shortens the wait.

If the GP writes a prescription or a referral letter during that consultation, there is no separate clinic fee for doing so. Pharmacy medicines are charged separately. Tests and scans sit outside the consultation, and the clinic explains those charges before anything extra goes ahead.

That is the visit when you feel unwell, or when something will not settle, and you want a doctor in the room.

When is it 999 or A&E?

999 is for life-threatening emergencies: a suspected heart attack or stroke, severe difficulty breathing, heavy bleeding, a seizure, choking, or a serious accident.

This clinic is not an emergency department. NHS advice is plain. Those presentations belong with ambulance crews and hospital emergency teams.

If you are already on the way to 117a and the picture changes, stop and call 999. A private GP can examine a chest, take an ECG, and decide whether cardiology is needed. That is not the same as treating something that is already a threat to life. The NHS page on when to call 999 is the public rule. Use it.

Calling 999 does not always mean an ambulance is sent. You might be told it is safe to make your own way to A&E. That decision belongs with the emergency service, not with a private booking screen. If you are not sure whether it is life-threatening, use NHS 111 rather than gambling on a listed slot.

When is it NHS 111?

Urgent symptoms that are not life-threatening still need a route built for urgency. NHS 111 exists for that gap. You can check symptoms online, or call 111, and trained staff will tell you whether you need A&E, an urgent treatment centre, a pharmacy, or to wait for a GP. For a child under five, NHS advice is to call 111 rather than relying on the online checker alone.

A private GP appointment can often be same-day. It is still not an emergency service, and weekend hours close at 14:00. If you are deteriorating after the clinic has shut, or you cannot wait for a listed slot, NHS 111 is the public route. It runs around the clock, and it is designed for people who are not sure which door they should use.

Walk-ins are accepted during opening hours when there is space. If there is not, you will wait, and waiting is the wrong plan for something that is getting worse quickly.

When is it a Health MOT?

A Health MOT is for planned screening when you feel well. It is a structured look at risk, bloods and the things a screening package is built to find early. It is not the appointment for a current symptom.

If you have a cough, a lump, chest pain, a change in bowel habit, or anything that is bothering you now, book the GP. Screening assumes you are well enough for a timetable. A GP visit assumes you are not.

People mix them up because both happen in the same building, and both can include blood tests. Are you here because something is wrong, or because you want a planned check while you feel fine? Wrong belongs with the GP. Fine belongs with the MOT, on a day you can give to it.

When is it a visa, employer or PEME form?

Visa medicals, employer medicals and seafarer PEME examinations need the correct form. They are not a standard GP slot. Reception will point you to that service, including seafarer PEME when that is the form, rather than putting you into a consultation that cannot complete the papers.

A GP can write a letter that you seem well. An embassy, a sponsor or a cruise line will not file that letter in place of the form they named. If the paperwork says visa, occupational, pre-employment or PEME, bring the form and book the appointment that completes it. If you also have a cough, that is a separate GP visit, because the form answers an office and the GP answers the illness.

Do not hope the doctor will just sign something at the end of a symptom appointment. The clinic can only complete the papers you were asked for.

What can the consultation do?

The GP takes the history and examines you where it would help.

You arrive with whatever you have: a medicine list, old letters, a photo of a rash, an incomplete story. Bloods, an ECG or a breathing test can follow in the same building if they would change the plan that day. Imaging, when it is needed, is arranged at partner centres.

A new medicine needs a full consultation. There is a repeat prescription-only route for established medication, and a doctor reviews each request. They may approve it, decline it, or ask you to attend. That is clinical judgement, not a counter service. Pharmacy charges for the medicine itself remain separate in either case.

If specialist care is the right place, the same practice can write the referral during the visit. The clinic publishes named consultant routes on its GP page: Dr Hikmat Naoum for gynaecology, Prof Darrel Francis for cardiology and Dr Ahmed Shoka for psychiatry. The clinic's geriatrician is Prof Arshad Rather. How quickly you are then seen depends on the receiving service.

You can ask to see the same GP again. Reception will note the preference, and later visits continue from the notes already held at the clinic when that doctor is available. If you need to be seen sooner, another GP here can pick up from those notes.

The clinic does not routinely send records to your NHS GP or another provider unless you ask. There are limited exceptions, for example where the law requires it or to protect someone from serious harm. You can ask for a summary to pass on.

Children aged 3 months to 15 years are not seen on the adult GP list. Babies under 3 months should be seen by an NHS GP, NHS 111 or A&E. Paediatric GP clinics run on Monday and Wednesday before 14:00. That is a different service, and booking the adult slot for a child will not produce it.

Every doctor's registration can be checked on the GMC register; doctors working as GPs in NHS services must also be on the GP Register. Independent clinics in England are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. Those two checks sit outside any marketing page, and they are worth using before you sit down.

What helps beforehand?

Bring the medicines you take, any letters or results you already have, and a clear account of what has changed, even if the story feels incomplete.

• The doctor can then spend the time on the problem rather than reconstructing it from a blank page.
• Book online if you need a listed time, because that is what guarantees the slot.
• Walk in if you can be flexible and there is capacity, but do not treat a walk-in as a promise.
• Same-day is often possible, but it is not a guarantee.
• Ask reception to note the GP you prefer if you want continuity.
• If you need to be seen sooner than that doctor can see you, another GP can use the notes already here.
• If the problem is a current symptom, book the GP rather than a Health MOT.
• If it is a named form from an embassy, an employer or a cruise line, bring the form and book that pathway.
• If it might be life-threatening, do not come here with it.
• For a child between 3 months and 15 years, ask for the paediatric GP clinic on Monday or Wednesday before 14:00, not the adult list.

What should you avoid?

Do not use this clinic as an emergency department.

• Call 999 or go to A&E for life-threatening symptoms.
• Use NHS 111 for urgent problems that are not a threat to life.
• Do not book a Health MOT because you have a symptom now.
• Screening is for when you feel well.
• Do not book a standard GP slot because you were sent a visa, employer or PEME form.
• Those papers need the appointment that completes them, including a pre-employment medical when that is the form.
• Do not expect X-ray, ultrasound, MRI or CT in the Harley Street rooms.
• Those happen at partner centres.
• Do not assume a repeat prescription will be issued without a doctor looking at it, and do not expect a new medicine without a full consultation.
• Do not assume your NHS GP will automatically receive the notes.
• Ask if you want a summary sent or given to you.
• Do not bring a child to an adult list and hope it will be converted on the day.
• The paediatric service has its own days and hours.
• If an in-person private GP is the visit you need, the details of how Medical Express Clinic runs that service sit on the private GP services page.
• You can contact the clinic on 020 7499 1991.

Related guides: how a private prescription review works and choosing between a children's GP, NHS 111 and A&E.