Family medicine
Your routine appointment for anything that is new, worrying, or has not settled on its own. Twenty-five minutes with a clinician who keeps your record.
- From
- £95
- Length
- 25 minutes
- Wait
- Same or next working day
Mental health
Thirty-minute first appointments for anxiety, low mood, burnout and sleep, with a clinician who can prescribe, refer and keep seeing you.
- Appointment length
- 30 minutes for a first visit
- From
- £120
- Typical wait
- Within 5 working days
Follow-ups are 25 minutes at £95. We do not charge for the first follow-up after starting or changing medication.
The division between physical and mental health is largely an artefact of how services are commissioned. People do not arrive divided that way. They arrive tired, with a chest that feels tight, sleeping badly, and a suspicion that some of this is in their head and some of it is not.
Dr Chen leads this work, and holds a general list as well, which is deliberate.
Why thirty minutes
Because the first ten are usually spent establishing that it is safe to say the real thing. A fifteen-minute appointment reliably ends just as the conversation becomes useful.
If you are in crisis
This service is not an emergency one. If you are in immediate danger, call 999. Samaritans answer at any hour on 116 123. If you need urgent help but it is not immediately life-threatening, call 111 and choose the mental health option.
This appointment is for
- Anxiety, low mood, or a loss of interest in things that used to matter
- Burnout, or sleep that has not been right for months
- Reviewing medication that was started a long time ago by someone else
- Wanting to talk to a clinician before deciding whether you want therapy
Step by step
What actually happens
From booking to follow-up, with how long each part takes. No stage of this is a surprise.
- 1
Book without explaining why
2 minutes onlineYou do not have to justify the appointment to a receptionist. Book a mental health slot and that is the whole of what anyone needs to know in advance.
- 2
Thirty minutes, at your pace
30 minutesThe first appointment is longer than a standard one and there is no structured questionnaire to get through first. What has changed, when, and what you want to be able to do again.
- 3
Options, with the honest version of each
Therapy, medication, both, or neither. What each actually involves, how long it takes to work, what the side effects are in the first fortnight, and what the evidence does and does not show.
- 4
A referral that is a handover
Where therapy is the answer we refer to services we know, with a letter that means you are not starting your story again from scratch. We tell you the real waiting time.
- 5
Follow-up, close together at first
2–3 weeksIf we start or change medication we see you again within two to three weeks, and we do not charge for that appointment. The first fortnight is when people stop, and it is usually the fortnight they most needed support.
Do you offer therapy here?
Not as a standing service. Dr Chen holds a postgraduate certificate in CBT and uses that approach within appointments, but if you need a course of therapy we will refer you to a therapist rather than deliver it ourselves. We will be specific about who and why.
Will you just put me on antidepressants?
No. Medication helps some people considerably and is the wrong answer for others, and the honest conversation about which is which takes longer than most appointments allow. That is the reason this one is thirty minutes.
I am already on medication. Can you review it?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people book. Many people are taking something started years ago in a brief appointment and never properly reviewed since, including a number who would like to stop and have not been shown how to do it safely.
Is it confidential?
Yes, with the limits that apply to all medical care — risk to your life, or to someone else's. We will explain exactly where those limits sit at the start of the first appointment rather than leaving it unsaid.
What if I am in crisis right now?
This is not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, call 999 or go to your nearest emergency department. Samaritans are on 116 123, free, at any hour. For urgent but not immediate concerns, call 111 and select the mental health option.
You might also need
Video consultations
A full appointment with your own clinician, by video, for the many problems that do not need you to be in the room — and an honest answer when yours does.
- From
- £70
- Length
- 20 minutes
- Wait
- Same day, including 07:30 and 19:00 slots
Long-term conditions
Structured reviews for diabetes, blood pressure, asthma, thyroid and heart disease — as one appointment that covers everything, not five that each cover a little.
- From
- £180
- Length
- 50 minutes
- Wait
- Within two weeks