Labour-approved private GP increase – not so much a surge as a wee swelling that may well go away if we don’t scratch it

By Professor John Robertson

The Herald is headlining with – ‘People are voting with their feet’: Private GP clinics triple since pandemic

And the numbers are – from 3 to 11. Wow, almost ‘quadrupling!’ Was that too big a word for a headline?

Anything else we need to know?

Em, er….oh yes, how many practices are the in Scotland and what percentage are private?

905, down from 995 in 2013, but with more patients across the sector these days, they’re bigger on average now, with, if my local is typical, a physio, mental health specialists, advanced nurses and several GPs. A critical mass that gets me appointments in days, sometimes the same day.

So, 3 was 0.33% and 11 is 1.21% producing not so much a surge as a wee swelling that may well go away if we don’t scratch it?

Footnotes:

What does Dr Ali charge?

  • Routine GP appointment (20 minutes) £110.00
  • Telephone GP appointment (10 minutes) £65.00
  • Home visits available on request – prices start at £200
  • Bloods available on request
  • Vitamin B12 injection £44.00
  • Hayfever injection £95.00
  • Private medicals starting from £195

Dr Naushad Ali

A telephone call at £6.50 per minute? I’d only need 10 seconds to tell them what I think of that. Getting your painful knee done privately rather than wait two years is one thing but I’ve always got a GP call back the same day – does 65 quid get you one instantly?

Dr Ali went to £14 000 a year Hutchesons Grammar School. Don’t we know someone else who went there? Oh yes, Scottish Labour Branch leader Anas Sarwar. And, making more use of the private sectors is UK Labour Party policy now so that all fits together neatly doesn’t it?

6 thoughts on “Labour-approved private GP increase – not so much a surge as a wee swelling that may well go away if we don’t scratch it”

  1. Percentages only get quoted if they imply a bigger problem for the SNP/SG than a vague stat or number without context ! That is the level of churnalism we face in Scotland !

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  2. I’m ‘grateful’ to The Herald for stimulating a bit of research on a slow Sunday morning. As always, it’s been interesting to learn more about how commercial interests engage with health and social care provision!

    Regarding the Glasgow Private Clinic, The Herald tells us that its founder, Dr Naushud Ali ‘quit the NHS “reluctantly” in October 2023. The Glasgow Private Clinic Limited was incorporated in September 2018. Dr Ali became the sole director of the company at the same time. He remains its sole director. So the private clinic was formed BEFORE the pandemic and its impact on subsequent demand on the NHS.

    The Herald also tells us his Clinic ‘employs’ 28 clinicians. The company’s accounts for the Year to June 2023 lodged with Companies House having been signed by the director on 13 October 2023 records that the average number of employees in the year, including directors, was two, the same as in 2022.

    https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/YBimqmqQQO4aA_aXfKFhKqXosUg/appointments

    So where have all the Clinic’s employees’ gone? Has there been amazingly rapid recruitment since then? There is a long list of ‘specialists’ on the Clinic’s website: I selected just one in an attempt to better understand employment status.

    Dr Rahat Maitland is one of the specialists listed on the Glasgow Private Clinic Ltd website – in her profile we learn that she is a ‘Consultant Physician in Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital’.

    A search of Companies House records finds a ‘Rahat Ashraf Maitland’ as the sole director of a Glasgow-based company called RDR Medical Limited. Same individual? Incorporated in January 2022, the nature of the business is ‘General practice medical activities’. So does the Glasgow Private Clinic Ltd provide marketing, admin support and/or consulting room space to such tiny companies owned by ‘specialists’ rather than have employees? Are such tiny companies which engage in ‘General practice medical activities’ common – again boosting the apparent size of the business base in private provision?

    Searching the Companies House records reveals that an ‘Nashoud Ali’ (a ‘doctor’ by occupation) has two other active directorships:

    Arin Healthcare Ltd – incorporated April 2022 – sole director – average number of employees recorded in last set of accounts is one.

    TBG Property Group Ltd – incorporated December 2021 – ‘Development of building projects’ – one of three active directors.

    One of the other directors of the property company is a Dr Manas Tiwari who has a total of five active directorships, including being the sole director of the following companies:

    • Aberdeen Private Clinic Ltd – incorporated 28 December 2022
    • Dundee Private Clinic Ltd – incorporated 28 December 2022
    • Edinburgh Private Clinic Ltd – incorporated 21 November 2022 .

    I can find no indication of actual clinical activities for the latter three companies – anyone? Boosting sector numbers again though!

    Back to the Glasgow Private Clinic, its list of ‘specialists’ includes the same (?) Dr Manas Tiwari. This is his profile: ‘General Practioner & Joint Injection Services’ – I am a GP partner at Bishopton Medical Practice and a Chief Medical Officer at Knockhill Racing Circuit. I have a keen interest in musculoskeletal medicine with specific interests in racetrack trauma and joint injections. ‘

    It goes on: Feeling tired and weak? An injection of vitamin B12 can give you a boost of energy and stimulate your metabolism. The effects can last up to 3 months! Available for £44.’

    And what about the Bishopton Medical Practice? From its website, Dr Tiwari retains his GP position in that practice. I wonder if his NHS patients realise just what a busy person this medic is?

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    2. As an aside, the picture of the Glasgow Private Clinic from The Herald (see top of the blog post) has been carefully cropped. Not quite as ‘impressive’ when seen on Google Maps street view!

      See https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.7728521,-4.3317159,3a,75y,312.59h,92.63t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sjv8C0Jvhq8kUAiu2TsKGJw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Djv8C0Jvhq8kUAiu2TsKGJw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D56.27493%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

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  3. Aye, another McGargle article with two comments backing up the ‘chaos’, ‘collapse’, etc., and absolutely nothing at all to do with Tory Austerity Inc….

    I couldn’t quite square your “So, 3 was 0.33% and 11 is 1.21% producing not so much a surge as a wee swelling that may well go away if we don’t scratch it?” with McGargle’s “Doctors warned that true scale of the “two-tier” healthcare crisis will be even worse as available figures do not disclose how many clinicians have made the switch to working full or part-time in the independent sector”.

    First of all Helen you were instancing private clinics, not doctors moonlighting, and surely those working full time are in a private practice as opposed to this nonsensical made up ‘independent sector’ – Doctors plural ? Ok, one of them will have been Kennedy, so who was the second ?

    I still have “Crisis? What Crisis?” in my album collection, were the original members of Supertramp still here, they’d be on “Bullshit ! Pure bullshit ! 49” by now…

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