The hidden extras that can turn your online GP booking into a VERY expensive appointment

Last week I was playing tennis with my wife when a sharp pain in my knee abruptly ended the game.

Not only did it damage my pride – it ended the game when my wife was two sets – but it also left me with a limp and I wanted immediate professional medical advice as to whether treatment was necessary.

I contacted my GP, but no appointment had been available for several days.

This is not uncommon; As many as one in twenty people in Britain have to wait more than a month to see a GP.

I then considered a visit to my local hospital’s emergency department, but I knew I might be waiting in the waiting room for a few hours.

So instead I decided to try a ‘remote GP’ service. These are private companies that offer appointments with a GP over the telephone or via a video call using your smartphone.

They cost from £29 for a short appointment during which you can tell a doctor about your condition and get advice about treatment.

They can write prescriptions if you need them and arrange for them to be sent to the nearest pharmacy for you to collect. They can also refer you if you need more specialist treatment.

You provide your details including address, age and gender, as well as payment details. However, your NHS medical history will not be accessed as part of the consultation.

Beware of hidden costs

Although the headline prizes looked attractive, I quickly discovered a host of hidden extras.

For example, Tap GP charged £39 for a ten-minute consultation. But if you need a sick note from the doctor, for example to give to your place of residence, work or education, you will be charged an extra £9. The same amount will be charged for a referral. Others do not charge extra for such services.

Remote private GPs can write prescriptions, but these must be paid for privately rather than by the NHS.

That means you have to pay for prescriptions, even though you usually get them for free on the NHS. NHS prescriptions cost £9.90 per item but can be higher if issued privately.

The cheapest appointment I could find with a remote GP was £29 with a company called Medicspot. However, the fine print showed that this was only for an ‘off-peak period’, which could last up to four days.

The main appeal of these services is that they are available seven days a week, usually between 8am and 10pm. A same-day emergency appointment with Medicspot costs £59.

Some services require you to pay for an appointment before you are allocated a specific time, while other services allow you to book an appointment at the same time as payment. If you want certainty about when your appointment will be, choose the latter.

A number of services offer a standard appointment time of just ten minutes, but will charge you more if you go over that.

For example, the GP service charges £49 for ten minutes. If you go over this limit it will cost a further £49, so a 15 minute consultation could end up costing £98, or if you opt for half an hour it will cost you £147.

Bupa warns against trying to save money by paying for a short consultation. A Bupa spokesperson said: ‘An initial consultation of 30 to 45 minutes can be a good idea as it can sometimes take that long to find out the real reason why someone is calling.

For example, they may have an embarrassing problem, like bladder control, that only comes up after they get over it and start discussing a related problem.”

Make a FREE appointment

Many critical illness, income protection and health insurance policies offer free access to remote private GP appointments.

Providers offering this service include life insurer MetLife, Bupa and Legal & General, Royal London, Aviva and HSBC.

These policies typically have 24-hour access to experts who can immediately book you in for a consultation with a qualified GP, by phone or online.

Alan Lakey, director of critical illness comparison website CIExpert, said: ‘The benefits of remote access to a GP are considered extremely valuable, but many customers are still unaware that they even exist within their policy.’

Employers often offer such agreements as a bonus. So before making an appointment, check whether you are not already eligible for a free appointment.

Choose a reputable company

The professional body representing doctors, the British Medical Association (BMA), says there is no substitute for individual personal care.

A spokesperson said: ‘We recommend that you visit a doctor in person as much as possible. Ideally, someone you have seen before, so that there is continuity of care. An example of how important a one-on-one consultation is is back pain.

‘With an online consultation the doctor may not go beyond this problem, but you could be masking a more serious underlying problem, such as cancer, that can only really be picked up by spending time with a patient.’

The Mail’s GP columnist Dr Martin Scurr recommends in-person appointments. He says: ‘It is very difficult if a doctor has never met someone, does not know their personality or medical history, to provide responsible medical care through an online consultation or telephone call.’

If you decide to seek help online, make sure you get support from a qualified doctor who is a member of a reputable body.

Go to gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/the-medical-register#searchtheregister and tap a doctor’s name. It is possible to verify their login details.

Looking for doctors who have worked for the NHS is another sign of quality that we should consider as it shows a level of training and experience with UK hospitals and medical centres. Remote GPs advertising NHS credentials included Livi and Tap GP.

Providers such as GP Care Now and Medicspot also listed names and profiles of the doctors available to speak to. While this was no guarantee of quality, it was reassuring that they were happy to give their name.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, President of the Royal College of GPs, added: ‘It is important that we use technological advances to improve care and choice in the way we deliver care to patients, as long as this is done safely.

‘In recent years we have seen many services offering remote GP consultations for a fee – and some patients find this convenient and useful, especially for simple medical problems.

‘If patients decide to use these services, we recommend choosing services that follow GMC guidelines for safe remote consultation and prescribing and have been verified by the Care Quality Commission.

‘They should also be aware that the healthcare provider they consult with may not have access to their NHS medical records.’

Emma Clarke, from Which?, said: ‘Search engines like Google allow businesses to advertise to put their name at the top. This should not be seen as a recommendation.’

I opted for a remote GP service, which offers an appointment within two hours. I pre-downloaded their app onto my smartphone and logged in a few minutes early so I was ready to go.

At the appointed time, a doctor appeared on video on my screen and asked to see my ID before talking to me about my knee. After the call, the GP emailed me the details of the conversation so that I could share them with my GP.

It was nothing like visiting my usual GP, but it was impressive to get an appointment within two hours, even though I had to pay for it.