General Practice

Almost all general practices in England that treat NHS or privately funded patients are independent organisations.

Contractual arrangements between independent general practices and the NHS have been in place since the 1940s, and it is possible to argue that general practice has been one of the longest-standing and most successful public-private partnerships in the history of UK public services.

More recently, there has been growth in the number of privately funded general practices, classed by the CQC as independent doctors. Because the healthcare they provide is quite different to NHS provision, comparative information is not available.

899 independent doctors have been rated by the CQC, of which 94% are good or outstanding. The percentage of independent consulting doctors rated by the CQC fell from 47% at the end of 2024 to 37% by the end of 2025. This is largely because the number of independent consulting doctors registered with the CQC increased from 1,990 to 2,444 over the same period.