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Patient economics

What a private patient is really worth.

A consultation fee is what a patient pays to walk through the door. It tells you very little about what they're worth to you. Someone who has the treatment, comes back, and sends a friend is worth many times that fee, and most practices have never worked out by how much. So they spend to win a patient on a hunch, and the hunch runs low. Pick your specialty and see the number.

consultation fee £200
proceed to treatment 35%
value of one treatment £3,500
treatments over their lifetime 2

What one more patient is worth to you

£2,650
how much would you invest to win one
spend to win one £795
for a return of 3.3×

A balance. You spend a fair amount to bring in new patients without stretching your margin.

What's actually affordable comes down to your own margins, which you know far better than we do.

We'll email you the full breakdown for your practice: every figure, and how we got to it. It's yours to keep, and we won't pitch you.

Or book a consultation straight away.

See how we worked it out

These are typical UK starting figures, not a quote. Change any of them to match what your practice actually charges, and every number updates.

Most specialists price their marketing off the consultation fee, because that's the number sitting in front of them. A £200 consult makes a few hundred pounds to win a patient feel like plenty. It isn't, once you add up the treatment, the repeat visits, and the people they send your way. The number worth acting on is the ceiling: the most you can spend to win a patient and still make money. Once you know it, the question stops being how big the budget should be and becomes whether you're under the ceiling and winning enough patients. That one has an answer.

Referrals count for more than most people allow. A happy patient in aesthetics sends roughly one in seven your way; in fertility it's closer to one in five; in some specialties it's very small. The more they refer, the more each patient is worth, and the more you can afford to spend winning the next one. That direct lift is what the calculator counts; the quieter one, the reviews and reputation that win patients who never met the one who referred them, is what the system builds.

You now have two numbers most practices never write down: what a patient is worth, and the most you can sensibly spend to win one. Keep them handy. Next time someone quotes you for ads, or a new page, or an SEO retainer, hold the price against the ceiling and you'll see fairly quickly whether it's worth doing. If the channel in question is paid ads, the paid ads calculator takes it further, working out what a booked patient actually costs you and whether that clears the line.

Working out the ceiling is the easy bit. Spending up to it, month after month, without losing people somewhere between the search and the booking, is the hard bit. That's the part we run.

If you want to go past the starting numbers and see what this looks like for your practice, that's a conversation worth having.

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Patient value, in plain terms

The questions behind the number.

  • What is a private patient actually worth?

    More than the consultation fee, usually by a wide margin. Add up the treatment they go on to have, the times they come back, and the patients they refer, and a single new patient is often worth a few thousand pounds rather than the couple of hundred they pay to be seen. The exact figure depends on your specialty and your prices, which is what the calculator works out.

  • Isn't a patient just worth their consultation fee?

    That's the number most practices use, because it's the one in front of them. But it only covers the first appointment. The patient who goes on to treatment, comes back, and sends a friend is worth far more, and pricing your marketing off the consult alone means you spend too little to win them.

  • How much should I spend to win a new patient?

    Up to the point where it still pays, and not a penny more than you have to. If a new patient is worth £1,570, a few hundred pounds to win one usually leaves room to spare, but where exactly the line sits depends on your margins, which only you know. The calculator gives you the worth and the return at different spend levels, and lets you set how hard you want to push toward it.

  • How much should a private practice spend on marketing overall?

    There's no single right percentage. A more useful way in is per patient: work out what one is worth, decide the most you'll spend to win one, then multiply by how many new patients you want a month. That gives you a budget tied to your own economics rather than a figure copied from another practice.

  • What's a sensible return on ad spend for a clinic?

    It depends on your appetite. Spend conservatively and you might see four or five pounds of value back for every pound; push for growth and it might be two or three, on more patients. Whether that clears your margin is a question only you can answer. The point isn't the highest multiple, it's knowing which one you've picked and why.

  • Do referrals really make that much difference?

    In some specialties, yes. A happy aesthetics patient sends roughly one in seven your way; in fertility it's closer to one in five; in some specialties it's very small. Where word of mouth is strong it quietly raises what every patient is worth, and with it the amount you can afford to spend winning the next one.

  • Where do the starting figures come from?

    From typical UK private treatment pricing and published clinic and insurer rates. They're there to get you a realistic first number, not to value your specific practice. Change any of them to match what you actually charge and the figures update.