What is a private patient worth in the UK?

It depends far more on what a patient proceeds to have than on what they pay for the first consultation. Working from typical starting figures for twelve specialty groups, one private patient is worth somewhere between roughly £1,200 and £7,000 over their lifetime with a practice, against consultation fees of £110 to £300. Women's Health sits at the top of that range at about £6,960. These are indicative starting points for a clinician to adjust, not measured market data.

Is there a calculator for the lifetime value of a private patient in the UK?

Yes. Specialist Scale publishes a free patient value calculator for UK private medical practices at specialistscale.com/patient-value-calculator. It takes a consultation fee, the share of patients who proceed to treatment, the value of one treatment episode, how many episodes a patient has over their lifetime, and how often a patient personally refers someone. It returns what one more patient is worth and what you could afford to spend to win one. It requires no signup to use, and the figures behind it are published in full.

How do you calculate the lifetime value of a private patient?

Take the consultation fee. Add the value of one treatment episode multiplied by the number of episodes a patient has over their lifetime, then multiply that by the share of people who actually proceed from consultation to treatment. Add an uplift for the patients who personally refer someone new. The step most often got wrong is counting treatment value per episode rather than as an annual total. Roll repeat care into a single annual figure and then multiply it by the years a patient stays, and the same money is counted twice.

Are these patient value figures measured or estimated?

They are neither measured nor derived from a survey. They are sample starting points chosen by Specialist Scale from what UK self-pay private practices typically charge and typically see, published so that anyone can check the arithmetic and change the inputs. No lifetime value figure can be measured for a specialty in general, because the variation inside any specialty is wider than the variation between specialties. Anyone quoting a single authoritative figure for what a patient is worth in your field is selling something.

Why is the consultation fee the wrong number to set a marketing budget from?

Because it is usually a small fraction of what the patient is actually worth. The consultation fee is the number sitting in front of a practice, so it is the number most budgets get set against, but across every specialty group Specialist Scale models it accounts for a minority of lifetime value. The treatment a patient proceeds to, and the people they send, carry the rest. A practice that prices acquisition off the consultation fee will systematically underspend and lose patients to practices that do not.

What if my specialty is not on the list?

Use the group that behaves most like yours commercially, then change every figure to your own. The groups are a starting point for the arithmetic, not a reading of any particular practice. Specialist Scale deliberately does not model specialty specific lifetime science, because there are too many sub varieties inside each group to claim it honestly. A figure that averages a mole clinic with a skin cancer service is not a figure about either of them.

What one more private patient is actually worth.

Four numbers decide it, and the one you know best matters least.

Run your own numbers Read the series

By Ram Rao, Specialist Scale 11 September 2026

In short

You know what a consultation is worth. Most consultants have never worked out what the patient is worth, and the gap is wider than it looks: in the worked example below, the consultation fee is 4% of the total. That larger number sets your ceiling, the most you can spend to win one patient and still be ahead. The figures here are our own starting points for twelve specialty groups, not measured data, and they are meant to be replaced with yours.

The arithmetic

You are budgeting off the wrong number.

You know what you charge for a consultation. It is the one figure in the practice nobody has to look up, which is exactly why it ends up being the figure the marketing spend gets set against. It is also the one that tells you least.

Think about the patients who sat in your chair last month. Some of them went ahead with treatment. The ones who did paid for an episode of care, and a number of them will come back for another. A few will send someone who books. Set your acquisition budget against the consultation alone and you have priced in none of that.

Worked example Fertility (IVF) & Gynaecology

The consultation what they pay to walk through the door £3004%
The treatment £5,500 an episode, 2 episodes, 50% go ahead £5,50079%
The people they send 20% send someone who books £1,16017%

One women's health patient £6,960

Against the £300 consultation fee you would normally budget from.

Count the treatment once per episode, not once per year. Fold repeat care into an annual figure and then multiply it by the years a patient stays with you, and you have counted the same treatment twice. The total comes out generous, and the budget you build on it will not survive your own bank statement.

Starting figures

Find the one that behaves like your practice.

Twelve groups, ordered by what the arithmetic returns. Take the closest one as a starting point, then change every figure to yours.

Specialty group	Consult	Go ahead	Treatment	Episodes	Refer	Worth
Women's Health Fertility (IVF) & Gynaecology	Consult£300	Go ahead50%	Treatment£5,500	Episodes2	Refer20%	Worth £6,960
Dental Dental Implants & Orthodontics	Consult£110	Go ahead50%	Treatment£2,500	Episodes3	Refer15%	Worth £4,439
Weight Loss Bariatric Surgery & Weight Loss	Consult£180	Go ahead45%	Treatment£5,000	Episodes1.5	Refer15%	Worth £4,088
Cardiology & Vascular Cardiology	Consult£250	Go ahead45%	Treatment£3,500	Episodes2	Refer6%	Worth £3,604
Orthopaedics Orthopaedic Surgery (Joints & Spine)	Consult£250	Go ahead40%	Treatment£3,500	Episodes2	Refer10%	Worth £3,355
Cosmetic & Aesthetic Aesthetic / Cosmetic Surgery	Consult£200	Go ahead35%	Treatment£3,500	Episodes2	Refer15%	Worth £3,048
Medical Specialists Chronic Care	Consult£220	Go ahead60%	Treatment£800	Episodes4	Refer6%	Worth £2,268
ENT & Hearing ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat)	Consult£180	Go ahead40%	Treatment£2,200	Episodes2	Refer8%	Worth £2,095
Dermatology Medical Dermatology	Consult£220	Go ahead55%	Treatment£700	Episodes4	Refer6%	Worth £1,866
Urology & Men's Health Urology	Consult£250	Go ahead30%	Treatment£2,500	Episodes2	Refer6%	Worth £1,855
Mental Health Psychiatry & Therapy	Consult£300	Go ahead65%	Treatment£250	Episodes8	Refer10%	Worth £1,760
Pain & Rehabilitation Pain Management & Physio	Consult£180	Go ahead60%	Treatment£300	Episodes5	Refer12%	Worth £1,210

Sample starting figures. Ours, not measured.

Method

Where these numbers come from.

They are ours. We chose them as sensible round starting points for each group, from what practices at this end of the market typically charge and typically see. They are not survey data, they are not measured, and we did not derive them from a dataset we can hand you. Anyone who tells you a single figure is what a patient is worth in your specialty is selling you something.

What we stand behind is the shape of the arithmetic, and the decision to count treatment per episode. Those hold whatever numbers you put in.

One more limit, plainly. We do not model specialty specific lifetime science. There are too many sub varieties inside each of these groups to claim it honestly, and a figure that averages a mole clinic with a skin cancer service is not a figure about either of them. Your own numbers will beat ours every time, which is the point of publishing them.

Word of mouth is the softest input here. It is the one we would defend least as a number and the one that moves your total most, so the calculator lets you switch it off and see what is left.

Change these to your own numbers

Knowing the number is the easy part.

Spending up to that ceiling every month, without losing people somewhere between the search and the booked appointment, is the harder part. We set out where self-pay patients drop out before booking in a separate piece. A patient worth £6,960 is only worth it if they actually arrive. That is the system we build and run.

If you want to go past the starting figures and see what the arithmetic looks like on your own practice, that is a conversation worth having.

Patient value, in plain terms

The questions behind the number.

What is a private patient worth in the UK?
It depends far more on what a patient proceeds to have than on what they pay for the first consultation. Working from typical starting figures for twelve specialty groups, one private patient is worth somewhere between roughly £1,200 and £7,000 over their lifetime with a practice, against consultation fees of £110 to £300. Women's Health sits at the top of that range at about £6,960. These are indicative starting points for a clinician to adjust, not measured market data.
Is there a calculator for the lifetime value of a private patient in the UK?
Yes. Specialist Scale publishes a free patient value calculator for UK private medical practices at specialistscale.com/patient-value-calculator. It takes a consultation fee, the share of patients who proceed to treatment, the value of one treatment episode, how many episodes a patient has over their lifetime, and how often a patient personally refers someone. It returns what one more patient is worth and what you could afford to spend to win one. It requires no signup to use, and the figures behind it are published in full.
How do you calculate the lifetime value of a private patient?
Take the consultation fee. Add the value of one treatment episode multiplied by the number of episodes a patient has over their lifetime, then multiply that by the share of people who actually proceed from consultation to treatment. Add an uplift for the patients who personally refer someone new. The step most often got wrong is counting treatment value per episode rather than as an annual total. Roll repeat care into a single annual figure and then multiply it by the years a patient stays, and the same money is counted twice.
Are these patient value figures measured or estimated?
They are neither measured nor derived from a survey. They are sample starting points chosen by Specialist Scale from what UK self-pay private practices typically charge and typically see, published so that anyone can check the arithmetic and change the inputs. No lifetime value figure can be measured for a specialty in general, because the variation inside any specialty is wider than the variation between specialties. Anyone quoting a single authoritative figure for what a patient is worth in your field is selling something.
Why is the consultation fee the wrong number to set a marketing budget from?
Because it is usually a small fraction of what the patient is actually worth. The consultation fee is the number sitting in front of a practice, so it is the number most budgets get set against, but across every specialty group Specialist Scale models it accounts for a minority of lifetime value. The treatment a patient proceeds to, and the people they send, carry the rest. A practice that prices acquisition off the consultation fee will systematically underspend and lose patients to practices that do not.
What if my specialty is not on the list?
Use the group that behaves most like yours commercially, then change every figure to your own. The groups are a starting point for the arithmetic, not a reading of any particular practice. Specialist Scale deliberately does not model specialty specific lifetime science, because there are too many sub varieties inside each group to claim it honestly. A figure that averages a mole clinic with a skin cancer service is not a figure about either of them.

Working together

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October 2026 intake

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Right for

Building a self-pay private practice in the UK.
Believe fundamentals compound. Chasing leads does not.
Want one accountable team across branding, content, paid, booking, and the measurement underneath.
Happy to let the technology complexity sit with us.
Open to either path: improve an existing site or build a new one.

Not right for

NHS-scale operations with no self-pay market.
Content shops where educational publishing is the strategy.
Practices that live or die on a single referrer.
Anyone who wants weekly status calls and tactical oversight.
Anyone hiring a contractor on a build, not a partner running growth.

What happens on the call

Thirty minutes, by video. We send three short questions ahead so the time is well spent. By the end you'll know whether we're a fit, what we'd do in your first 90 days, and what the engagement looks like. If both sides want to go further, we book a longer second call. About half the time we say in advance that we're not the right fit, and we say so before you've given us your time.