A NEW private healthcare clinic is welcoming a number of patients who are usually treated on the NHS amid pressures in the health service.

Opening earlier this month, the new Coastal Private GP service has seen a number of patients go private for the first time.

Councillor Fred Birkett, the mayor of Fareham, cut the ribbon outside the new site on Warsash Road in Warsash.

General Practitioner Dr Hayley Cousins said that more people are looking for other ways to access health care amid ongoing issues in the NHS.

Dr Cousins, who worked as an NHS GP for nearly a decade, said she “noticed that access to GPs is not quite as good as it used to be”.

Daily Echo: Dr Hayley Cousins. Dr Hayley Cousins. (Image: Coastal Private GP.)

“Doctor patient relationship is not as good as it was. We’re able to offer some of those things that patients aren’t able to get anymore on the NHS.

“The majority of people that are coming to see us are people that are just moving into private health care.”

Dr Cousins graduated from Leicester medical school in 2006 into a role in the British Army where she undertook her medical foundation training.

She then moved into General Practice and has spent the last eight years as a GP principal at her NHS GP practice.

She said the private clinic is able to offer “a wider range of appointments” adding that there is a need for private services due to waiting times and a less personal NHS experience.

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“People are travelling a long way. We have been really lucky. Warsash as a village has really welcomed us.

“I love the NHS. But there will be more private GPs and there is a need for them.

“We’re also offloading work off the NHS.”

All the clinicians working at Coastal Private GP have worked in NHS primary care for years and have been “handpicked for their patient centred quality care”.

Its website states: “Offering you the appointment flexibility to fit around your lifestyle we can offer remote and face to face appointments – all providing patients with a high-quality service and the time needed to really talk through their concerns.”