ALT Guardian Headline: "Patients paying £550 an hour for private GPs" Patients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor. Growing numbers of paid-for GP services are opening up across Britain, in the latest sign of how the NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating a surge in people resorting to private healthcare. Clinics are wooing customers by offering short-notice consultations that involve seeing a doctor face-to-face or remotely – and they can last for much longer than the standard 10-minute NHS equivalent. “Private GP services are one of the big growth areas of a burgeoning private healthcare sector,” said David Hare, the chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, a trade body. The London General Practice on Harley Street in central London had the highest fees among the 25 non-NHS GP providers the Guardian looked at.