Concierge Doctor Group Reviews 2

A wonderfully convenient and comforting experience to be able to have my GP come to my home!

If I could have given zero stars in this review, I would have done so. My partner and I signed up to Concierge Medical, a private GP service with headquarters in Warwickshire. The website describes the company as offering “clinical excellence” and “the reassurance of true continuity and personal attention.”
It states: “Our members lead busy, demanding lives. They entrust us with their health because they understand the importance of immediate access to experienced doctors, round-the-clock support, and care that revolves entirely around their needs.”
It goes on to claim that their service is for a range of people including “clients with complex or ongoing medical needs.”
My partner has ongoing medical needs which are specific and complex, but not at all rare. Even so, we enquired at length, before signing up, as to whether Concierge Medical would be suitable for our requirements. We were assured that our needs would absolutely be accommodated and so we signed up. We then received a telephone call from our designated doctor, who spoke with my partner and everything seemed okay. The following day, however, my partner received a very cold, perfunctory email from the same doctor, stating that upon reflection she could not accept my partner owing to the complexities of their care requirements, and that my partner needed a “level of specialist coordination that falls outside our current scope of practice”. A complete turnaround, and one which left my partner shocked and confused. I, too, am incredulous, as there is nothing about the coordination of my partner's medical requirements that should be beyond the capabilities of a general practitioner. What is more, the manner in which we received this decision was unacceptable and indelicate. They were more than happy to chat on the phone when asking for our bank details, but when it came to actual communication with a doctor, she couldn’t even have the common decency to pick up the phone and discuss matters with my partner. So much for the personal attention and care they crow about online.
Their website claims, “We have brought back the family doctor that no longer exists in the NHS.” I would disagree: the NHS has been able to handle my partner’s needs for a number of years. Their entire website, worded in a way that indicates they offer a service superior to that of the NHS, is in reality nothing but a stream of empty buzzwords; in short, a fallacy. They also claim that they provide care “From birth to end of life.” Unfortunately, it’s the bit in between that they seem to struggle with. I write this as a warning to other prospective patients. Please make sure and then double check and triple check that they will indeed be there for you and able to cater to your medical needs before you get tied into a contract with these people, and entrust them with your care. Their Care Quality Commission rating was published in 2019; perhaps they were good 7 years ago, but that is definitely not our experience. The very same day, we contacted another private GP service which accepted myself and my partner, including their complex needs, without any qualms or fuss; we met with our new GP that day, who treated us with respect and kindness - a stark contrast to the flippant and superficial manner of Concierge Medical.