Private health insurance in the UK mostly pays for specialists, scans and hospital treatment rather than everyday surgery visits, yet several insurers attach a remote GP to the policy, and their rules on paying a GP's fees are far from uniform. Among the six insurers compared on this page, Bupa, Vitality, WPA and AXA Health each name an online GP service in their own documents, while the Aviva and The Exeter wording both put treatment by a GP on the list of things they do not cover. If GP access is part of what you are deciding, an FCA-authorised broker can lay these arrangements out together against your age and health needs and price them; the enquiry beside this article asks for a free call-back.
This is the side-by-side view; where an insurer has its own GP page on this site, it is linked below. Page numbers are PDF pages, and the wording sent with your quote is what binds you, not this summary.
Remote GP services: what each insurer calls it and how you reach it
Service names appear exactly as the documents print them, with the way in. A dash in the hours column means the document gives no opening hours for its GP service.
| Insurer | Name in the document | How you reach it | Hours stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bupa (By You guide, BINS 14718, p6) | "free digital GP appointments" | "You’ll first need to book one of our free digital GP appointments or see your own GP." | — |
| Vitality (Membership Guide, pp3, 9, 16) | "Video consultations with a Vitality GP" | "Book a Vitality GP consultation" in the Care Hub; "The Vitality GP app is available to download for free" | "Appointments are available between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 4pm on Saturdays." |
| WPA (personal and family health insurance brochure for Complete Health, p10) | "Remote GP Services" | "Access to a GP either by phone or by video. Simply book online at My WPA or via our WPA Health app" | — |
| AXA Health (Personal Health handbook, pp4, 10) | "AXA Doctor at Hand" | "Unlimited video or telephone consultations through the AXA Doctor at Hand service" | "Appointments available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (subject to appointment availability)." |
Sources: Bupa By You policy guide, BINS 14718, 2024 copyright, read on Bupa's own website on 4 September 2026. Vitality Membership Guide (Your Personal Healthcare plan terms and conditions), print code VHTCR0002 08/2024, a copy hosted on an intermediary's website (mytribeinsurance.co.uk), read 10 October 2026. WPA brochure, back cover "Effective from 1 October 2026", read on WPA's own site on 21 October 2026. AXA Health Personal Health membership handbook, cover dated October 2024, a copy hosted on an intermediary's website (crm.more-health.co.uk), read 4 September 2026.
Aviva's video GP app is described, with its own sources and dates, on Aviva's private GP access page, and The Exeter is dealt with further down.
The four names do not mean the same thing. Vitality's guide ties its service to a phone or tablet app and says video consultations are "available for members aged 1 year or older, and can be booked up to 48 hours in advance". AXA lists Doctor at Hand among the benefits of membership, with a restriction printed beside it: the benefit is "not available on plans where only a child under 18 has cover". WPA's entry adds "digital prescriptions to your local pharmacy" and a "Specialist Referral" line. Bupa makes a digital GP appointment, or a visit to your own GP, the first step for most problems; the three kinds it lets members phone about without a GP are set out on Bupa's page.
Who pays when a GP charges a fee: the wording, insurer by insurer
The more useful question for most buyers is whether a visit to a private GP in person is paid for, and here the documents say quite different things. Only passages that state a rule on GP fees or GP treatment are shown; nothing in the table is inferred from a document's silence.
| Insurer | What the document says | Document and page |
|---|---|---|
| Vitality | "There is no benefit available for the fees of a private GP that is not a Vitality GP, or a GP not in our private GP network." For a network GP: "There will be a co-payment for each face-to-face GP consultation." | Membership Guide, p17; benefit shown on p9 as "See membership certificate" |
| AXA Health | "Your membership does not cover any other primary care services, such as any services that could be provided by GPs, dentists and opticians. This includes drugs and treatment." Only if you add the Extended Cover Option: "Fees for visits to a private GP for consultations", "Up to £500 a year" | Personal Health handbook, October 2024, p12; Extended Cover Option table, p7 |
| Aviva | "We do not cover" … "GP charges or fees, including those for completing a claim form if the claim is not covered by the policy". Option D swaps in a narrower exclusion that opens with "treatment provided by a GP, other than minor surgery from our published list" | Healthier Solutions terms and conditions, print code AV1590050_GEN6842_0326, p23 |
| The Exeter | Listed under "What is not insured?": "Treatment by your GP, optician, dentist or orthodontist". The policy document adds that it "includes consultations, tests, check-ups or prescriptions provided by a GP, in a GP surgery or by a specialist when ordinarily provided by a GP." | Health+ IPID, "MKTG770 | June 2026", p1; Health+ Policy Document, "MKTG762 | July 2026", p23 |
Read together, three patterns show. Vitality and AXA both carve out a paid route to a GP and exclude the rest: for Vitality it is a network of private GPs, for AXA a yearly sub-limit that exists only if the optional Extended Cover Option is bought. Aviva's exclusion has a second, narrower version if option D is chosen, and The Exeter's is stated outright. The Exeter's policy document also says its exclusion reaches a specialist when the service is "ordinarily provided by a GP", so the line is drawn by the type of service as well as by who delivers it.
Bupa and WPA are left out of this table because the passages quoted for them describe a service rather than a rule on fees. Whether either would pay a surgery GP's bill is worth raising with the broker when they ring you. Because the AXA and Vitality answers turn on the plan and option you pick, ask for the same insurer quoted with and without the option, and what the option adds to the premium.
Prescriptions after a remote consultation
A remote call often ends with a prescription, and the insurers split on who pays. Vitality's guide says that if a Vitality GP issues one "you will need to pay for these yourself", with eligible expenses reimbursed "from your Primary Care benefit, up to your benefit limit"; its benefit table shows medication for an acute condition as "Up to £100 per plan year" (pp9 and 17). The same page lists prescriptions that do not qualify, among them a "routine or repeat prescription" and one "available from a pharmacy as an over-the-counter medication". AXA's handbook says "Private prescription and delivery charges are not covered by your plan" (p10). WPA's brochure puts it as "Issuing of Private Prescriptions (prescription charge not included)" (p10).
So a free video consultation and a paid-for prescription can sit side by side on the same policy. Vitality's reimbursement rules in full are on claiming prescriptions on Vitality.
Each insurer in one paragraph
Bupa. Bupa By You starts most problems with its digital GP service or the member's own surgery; cancer, mental health, and muscles, bones and joints are the exceptions, which members can phone Bupa about with no GP referral; the referral, ring-first and no-claims details are on Bupa private GP access.
Vitality. Video consultations with a Vitality GP are shown at "Full Cover" in the benefits table, and face-to-face visits depend on the plan's certificate and carry a co-payment. The certificate sent with a Vitality quote shows the limits and co-payment that apply to your own plan.
WPA. Remote GP Services sit in the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Complete Health in the Insurance Product Information Document effective from 1 November 2025 (p1), and the October 2026 brochure describes the phone and video service in more detail. The brochure (p12) also says its Fast Track Pathway benefits are "available without the need for a GP referral", so a GP is not the only way in for physiotherapy, skin concerns or symptoms of breast, prostate or skin cancer.
The Exeter. Health+ states the GP exclusion shown above, and its claims section tells members that "Approved treatment requires referral from a GP" (policy document, p9). Whether a Health+ quote comes with any remote GP service is something to have the broker check while they are on the phone to you, free.
Aviva. Healthier Solutions excludes GP charges and fees (p23); its separate video GP app, and the dates of the pages describing it, are on Aviva private GP access.
AXA Health. A remote GP is part of Personal Health membership, and a private GP in person is paid only under the Extended Cover Option; see AXA Health private GP access.
When the GP is the way in to a specialist
Whether a GP's letter is needed varies as much as the GP service does, and the referral rules sit in different places in each document. Vitality's guide says to obtain a referral "from your GP" and adds "You can also obtain your referral from a Vitality GP or other private GP", with an open referral required "Unless you have added a hospital list to your plan" (p32). The Exeter's policy document defines a GP as one on the GMC register "from the member's registered practice" (p5), says members with guided specialist "need an open referral from their GP if they are referred for treatment" (p5), and warns that "If a member receives a referral from a GP not at their registered practice, we may need to contact their registered practice for information about their medical history" (p8). If you expect to use an online doctor for referrals, ask the broker who calls to find out how The Exeter would treat one; it costs nothing to ask.
A claim followed from first appointment to specialist, across insurers, is on GP referrals for private treatment, and how a consultation eats into an out-patient allowance is on outpatient limits compared.
What the NHS wait looks like beside this
Much of the interest in GP access comes down to time: how long it takes to get from a first appointment to treatment. In June 2026 the NHS referral-to-treatment return counted 381,924 people on general surgery lists at 241 providers, and the median wait was 11 weeks. The longest provider medians were 27 weeks at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, which is an NHS trust, and 25 weeks at Nuffield Health, Brentwood Hospital, an independent-sector hospital that treats NHS-funded patients. Those figures cover one specialty and are no forecast of your own wait; treatment prices are set against waiting times in our NHS and private cost comparison.
Five things to ask before buying cover for GP access
- Does the quote include a remote GP service, and can everyone on the policy, children included, use it?
- Is a face-to-face private GP paid for, through which option, and with what limit or co-payment?
- Do prescriptions and any tests the GP orders fall inside the plan?
- Will the insurer accept a referral from the remote GP, or only from your own surgery?
- If a hospital list or guided option is chosen, which form of referral does it need?
An FCA-authorised broker can put all five to several insurers in one conversation; send the form and the call back is free.
Private GP cover: quick answers
Does private health insurance cover GP visits?
Some do, on conditions. Vitality pays for its network of private GPs with a co-payment, and AXA's optional Extended Cover Option pays private GP fees up to £500 a year, while Aviva and The Exeter list treatment by a GP among their exclusions.
Is an online GP included in private medical insurance?
Often, as a service attached to the policy: the Vitality, WPA, AXA and Bupa documents each name one. Aviva's video GP app has its own write-up on the Aviva GP page.
Does health insurance cover a private GP in the UK for children?
Vitality's video service is open to members aged 1 or over, while AXA's Doctor at Hand is unavailable on plans where only a child under 18 has cover. For how other insurers treat children, the broker can find out during the free call.
Does a claim have to start with a GP referral?
Not always. Bupa By You members can ring Bupa directly about three groups of symptoms, cancer among them, and WPA's Fast Track Pathways need no GP referral, while The Exeter says approved treatment requires one. The step-by-step version is on the referral page.
If GP access is weighing on your choice, use the form to request a phone call, and an FCA-authorised broker will go through those five questions with you, insurer by insurer.