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Questions

Asked every week, answered honestly.

Everything new patients actually ask — including the ones about money, insurance and whether to leave your NHS GP (short answer: don’t).

The full list

Tap a question to open it. If yours is not here, ring 01943 604 210 and reception will answer it without booking you anything.

No, and most patients don’t. You can stay registered with your NHS practice and use Hollybank alongside it — for same-day access, longer appointments, or a second opinion. With your permission we write to your NHS GP after any consultation that matters to your ongoing care, so your record stays whole.

A standard 30-minute GP consultation is £95; an extended 60-minute consultation is £175. Every fee is confirmed when you book, and the number you are quoted is the number on the invoice. There is no registration fee and no obligation to join the membership.

Usually, yes. Same-day slots are held every weekday and released at 8:00 when the phones open. In the last twelve months, nine appointments in ten requested before 10 am were seen the same day.

Most routine bloods are back within 24 to 48 hours. You will not be left watching a portal: a clinician telephones you with anything abnormal, and every result — normal or not — is explained in writing within three working days.

Yes. We are recognised by the major UK insurers including Bupa, AXA Health, Aviva and Vitality. Bring your policy number and authorisation code; we invoice the insurer directly where the policy allows, and tell you beforehand if any part will not be covered.

Yes — privately, or back into the NHS where that is the better route. Referral letters leave within one working day, and we follow the referral up rather than leaving it with you. We refer to named consultants we know, not to a directory.

We see children from the age of one, always with a parent or guardian present, and we book them the same 30 minutes an adult gets. Helen Grady runs the childhood immunisation and travel schedules; Dr Okafor sees children and teenagers for sports injuries.

If you need medication we issue a private prescription you can take to any pharmacy, or send electronically to the pharmacy you name. You pay the pharmacy for the medicine itself; our prescribing is itemised on your invoice at £15.

Yes, within roughly eight miles of the practice — Ilkley, Addingham, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Menston, Guiseley and the villages between. Home visits are £180 including travel, booked before midday for the same afternoon.

Your record is held securely in the UK, shared with nobody without your written consent, and available to you in full — it is your record, not ours. We are registered with the ICO and inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Registering with us

There is no joining process to speak of: your first appointment is your registration. Bring a list of current medication and, if you have one, a copy of your NHS summary record — your NHS practice must give you this free within a month of asking, and most now do it through the NHS App in minutes. We will have your history read before your first consultation, which is why first visits with a complicated story are usually booked as the hour rather than the half. If you take regular medication, bring the boxes themselves on the first visit — names on strips beat names from memory, and it saves ten minutes of detective work.

Prescriptions, referrals and sick notes

Private prescriptions are £15, issued in the room and sent electronically to any pharmacy you name; repeat prescriptions for stable, reviewed conditions are £20 including the review call. Referral letters leave within one working day and go to named consultants, with a copy to you and — with your consent — to your NHS GP. Private sick notes and fitness-to-work letters are £30, same day. Insurance claim forms are £35 and take up to three working days, because we read what we sign.
“I rang expecting a sales pitch and got ten minutes of a receptionist explaining why my problem was actually an NHS A&E job, no charge. Guess where I registered the following month.”
Sophie T., Menston — patient since 2023

Insurance, in practice

The mechanics, plainly: ring your insurer before you book and ask for an authorisation code for a private GP consultation — most issue one on the call. Give reception the code and your membership number when you book, and we invoice the insurer directly; you pay only any excess your policy sets, and we tell you what that will be before the appointment, not after. Two honest caveats. Some policies cover consultations but not diagnostics, so if you are adding bloods or an ECG, ask the insurer about those specifically. And a claim tells your insurer you were seen, which for a small number of conditions can affect future underwriting — if you would rather self-pay for something sensitive, say so, and nothing goes near the policy.

Results and follow-up, in practice

Every test at Hollybank has a named clinician responsible for its result — the one who ordered it — and a promised route back to you: a phone call for anything abnormal, a written note for everything, inside three working days. If a result needs action, the plan is in the same note, with the next appointment already offered. If you have heard nothing by day three, that is our failure, not a sign all is well — ring, and reception will chase it while you hold. We do not use a portal that shows you a red flag at eleven at night with no one to ask; results arrive with a person attached.
Still unsure?

Ask a person, not a website.

Reception is staffed by people who have worked here for years and will tell you straight whether we are the right answer for what you need.
01943 604 210
Book an appointmenthello@hollybankpractice.co.uk
Phones answered 8:00–18:30 weekdays · 9:00–13:00 Saturday