New guidance from the BMA has been issued advising GP's not to arrange tests for patients from private clinics:
Organising tests requested by private providers
If general practices receive requests from private providers to arrange tests or investigations, it is important to note that complying with such requests - regardless of the GP’s management and treatment of the patient - is outside the scope of NHS primary medical services.
The NHS GMS Regulations define essential services as services which are delivered in the manner determined by the GP in discussion with the patient. Therefore, a GP provider should only carry out investigations and prescribe medication for a patient where it is necessary for the GP’s care of the patient and the GP is the responsible doctor.
If the GP considers the proposed investigations to be clinically appropriate, is competent to both interpret them and manage the care of the patient accordingly, then the GP may proceed with arranging the tests or investigations.
However, if the GP does not have the knowledge or capacity to undertake these actions, they should decline to organise the investigation and advise the patient and the provider that the services do not fall within NHS primary medical services and to make alternative arrangements.
Patients are of course entitled to access their medical records, so GPs can provide access to the results of any such investigations for the patient to take back to the private provider.
This advice from the BMA is also supported by the ICB, who are effectively the employers of GPs. Their advice is even stronger to GPs in that they are not to assist private clinics by doing patient blood tests on the NHS.
We recommend using Medichecks for blood testing. You can find out more in our blood testing guide.