In the Herald today, the above, and:

A short flight of stone steps leads to the entrance of Health3 on St Vincent Street in Glasgow. The black-painted doorway, framed by chunky classical columns, looks more like the threshold of a private members’ club than a medical clinic.

Inside, the owners have taken great care to make the practice look like anything but a doctor’s office. The dark walls and near-black woodwork, high ceilings topped with ornate cornicing, arches and a decorative cast-iron staircase are dripping in contemporary luxury. A waiting room, illuminated with pools of amber light, is decorated with sculptural furniture and burnt-orange boucle armchairs.

The article presents the growth of these private clinics as linked to pressures on the NHS (‘struggling to get an appointment’), particularly long waits and difficulties accessing timely appointments but on further examination all but 5 or 10 at most, operate in therapies and cosmetic procedures that fall outside the NHS’s core free-at-the-point-of-need remits.¹

Are any of these private clinics using therapies considered controversial, useless or dangerous by researchers?

Yes — at least one prominently featured clinic (Health3) offers therapies that researchers and medical reviews commonly regard as having weak or insufficient evidence for the wellness and longevity claims typically made around them.⁠ Across the wider Blythswood cluster, medical aesthetics (Botox, fillers, etc.) are common. These are established elective procedures rather than “useless,” but they carry known risks (infection, vascular complications, unsatisfactory results) and are not part of core NHS care.²

Source:

1. https://www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/26592580.inside-glasgow-district-30-private-health-wellness-clinics/?utm_id=standard&utm_campaign=standard&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_BxMA1Kwqvg_QLnAzm9DJKo6Fp6FYmDamGjFrnhJRs-op7xRcBqPXAxgRinnCir8ErBD_Og8IuP0KT2w6U-hFXf03B7gvhnuNyT79qN-ZV8HBSJqY&_hsmi=445122817&utm_source=hubspot
2. https://www.ovid.com/jnls/dermatologicsurgery/abstract/10.1097/dss.0000000000002911~a-systematic-review-supporting-the-american-society-for?redirectionsource=fulltextview