Falling ill in a hotel room is illness with the comforts removed: no GP who knows you, no medicine cabinet, no certainty about how anything works here. The fix is simpler than it feels at 1am. A private GP from Clinique Alpa can come to your room, day or night, examine you properly and treat what can be treated on the spot. It is the same home visiting service we run across London, brought to your hotel, at the same published prices: £250 by day, £450 between 9pm and 7am, for up to an hour with the doctor.
If you are reading this mid-crisis, here is the order of operations. Severe chest pain, stroke signs, severe breathlessness, heavy bleeding, severe allergic reactions, suspected sepsis: call 999, the UK emergency number, immediately, and tell reception an ambulance is coming. Anything less than that, keep reading.
How a hotel visit works
You call 020 8882 8088, or reception or the concierge calls on your behalf with your consent. We confirm what is happening, agree a realistic arrival window, and the doctor travels to your hotel, asks for you by name and comes up to the room. The consultation is private; the hotel is told nothing clinical, before or after, unless you ask us to brief someone. The visit runs up to 60 minutes, which is long enough to take a real history, examine carefully, start treatment where appropriate, and leave you with a written plan in plain language, including exactly what to do if you worsen overnight in an unfamiliar city.
Where it is clinically right, the doctor can prescribe, and carries the medicines a visiting GP lawfully supplies, which matters at night when pharmacies are shut. Blood tests can be taken in the room for a £20 draw fee plus the test price, with results typically back within 24 to 48 hours, wherever you have travelled on to.
The invoice your insurer actually wants
Most travel policies cover a private GP visit, but claims fail on paperwork, not medicine. Every hotel visit we do produces an itemised invoice the same night: the doctor’s name and GMC number, the date, time and location of the visit, the clinical service provided, and each charge listed separately against our published prices. Published prices help twice here, once when you check your policy excess before booking, and again when the insurer can see the fee matches a public price list rather than a number invented in a lift. Keep every receipt, photograph everything, and notify your insurer within the window your policy sets.
What it costs
The prices are the same for every guest in every hotel, with no membership and no premium for the postcode: £250 for a daytime visit, £450 at night, extended visits of up to two hours at £480 and £750 where the clinical situation needs them, all listed on our fees page. A referral letter, should you need onward specialist care while in London, is £50. If you simply want advice on whether a visit is needed at all, a £65 virtual consultation is often the sensible first step, and we will say so when it is.
What we treat in hotel rooms
The pattern is familiar to any visiting doctor: respiratory infections picked up in transit, fevers, urinary infections, gastric illness and food poisoning, migraine that has outrun the painkillers in your washbag, allergic reactions short of emergency, pulled backs from unfamiliar beds and heavy luggage, anxiety flaring far from home, children spiking temperatures on the first night of a family trip. Most of it can be assessed and treated in the room. When something needs hospital care, we arrange it and we write down for you, clearly, what we found and why, so the hospital starts ahead rather than from scratch. Our piece on out of hours GP visits covers the night-time decision in more detail.
A note for concierges and night managers
When a guest is unwell, you need a service you can vouch for without hesitation: a GMC-registered GP, a realistic arrival time stated honestly, prices the guest can verify themselves before committing, discretion in the lobby and the corridor, and paperwork that survives an insurance claim. That is the service we run, and the publishable price list means you are never the person explaining a surprise fee at checkout. We are happy to speak with duty managers about how the service works before you ever need it: the same number, 020 8882 8088, any hour.
Frequently asked questions
Will you tell the hotel what is wrong with me?
No. Your consultation is confidential. The hotel knows only that a doctor visited a guest, unless you ask us to share more.
How fast can you reach a central London hotel?
We give you an honest window when you call, day or night. At night the roads are empty and visits are typically quicker. We do not advertise minute counts; we tell you the truth instead. Subject to availability.
Can I pay and claim it back from travel insurance?
That is how most guests do it. You pay us directly and claim with the itemised invoice. Whether a policy pays depends on its terms, so check your excess and exclusions.
Can the doctor prescribe if I have run out of my regular medication?
Often yes, after assessment, where it is safe and clinically appropriate. Bring whatever you have: the box, the repeat slip, a photo of the prescription.
Do you see children at hotels?
Yes. Feverish children on holiday are some of our most common night calls. The same examine-properly, explain-clearly approach applies, with low thresholds for escalation where a child is seriously unwell.
Unwell in a London hotel? Call 020 8882 8088, any hour. £250 day, £450 night, published on our fees page. Insurance-ready invoice the same night. Subject to availability.
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP, GP and founder of Clinique Alpa, 466 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, London N13 5PA. General information, not personal medical advice. In an emergency call 999. For NHS advice call 111 or visit nhs.uk.