Patient Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are

Aceso Health is the trading name used for private healthcare services provided by The Primary and Urgent Care Alliance Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 12599626.

Our clinic and registered address is The Annex, The Windmill, Ratcliffe Highway, Hoo, Rochester, ME3 8QB. You can contact us on 0203 633 6000 or at hello@acesohealth.co.uk.

Aceso Health is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the regulated activities it provides.

In these Terms, “Aceso Health”, “Aceso”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean The Primary and Urgent Care Alliance Ltd trading as Aceso Health. “You”, “your” and “patient” mean the person receiving the service and, where appropriate, a parent, person with parental responsibility or other authorised representative.

2. What these Terms cover

These Terms apply to private healthcare services supplied by Aceso Health to self-funding patients. They should be read together with the information given to you about the particular service, the price quoted or confirmed to you, any service-specific consent or treatment information, and our Privacy Notice.

Where service-specific written information contains additional conditions that are relevant to a particular service, those conditions form part of the agreement for that service. Nothing in any Aceso Health document reduces rights that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

3. Services we provide

Aceso Health may provide services including:

face-to-face clinical consultations;
telephone or video consultations;
home visits where available;
private prescribing and repeat prescription review services;
blood tests, health checks and other diagnostic investigations;
allergy testing;
resting and ambulatory ECG monitoring;
medically supervised weight-management services;
joint injections, minor procedures and other treatments within our clinical scope; and
other private healthcare services introduced by Aceso Health from time to time.

Not every service is suitable for every patient. The clinician responsible for your care will decide whether Aceso Health can safely and appropriately provide the assessment, investigation or treatment you request.

4. Aceso Health is not an emergency service

Aceso Health is not an emergency department and does not replace NHS emergency services.

If you have a serious or life-threatening medical emergency, call 999 or attend an Emergency Department. For urgent NHS advice, you may also be advised to contact NHS 111.

If an Aceso Health clinician believes that your condition requires emergency, hospital or other specialist assessment, they may advise you to use an appropriate NHS or other healthcare service rather than continuing treatment through Aceso Health.

5. Clinical independence and what you are paying for

When you pay for a consultation or clinical service, you are paying for the healthcare professional’s time, clinical assessment, professional judgement, advice and any other services expressly included in the agreed price.

Payment does not guarantee a particular diagnosis, investigation, treatment, referral, prescription, medicine, dose or clinical outcome.

Our clinicians exercise independent professional judgement and may decline to provide a particular investigation, medicine, prescription, procedure or treatment where it would be clinically inappropriate, unsafe, outside their professional scope, contrary to law or professional guidance, or outside the services Aceso Health is able to provide.

6. Booking process and when your appointment becomes confirmed

An appointment may initially be discussed or requested by telephone, email, website enquiry, callback request or another method made available by Aceso Health.

Before an appointment is formally confirmed, we may ask you to complete an electronic booking and clinical screening questionnaire. The information you provide is used to create or update your Aceso Health patient record and helps us prepare for your consultation.

Submitting a questionnaire or enquiry does not itself guarantee that Aceso Health will accept the requested appointment, provide a particular service, issue a prescription or provide treatment.

Before you complete the booking process, you will be provided with or directed to the current Aceso Health Patient Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice. The applicable service and price will be confirmed before you are required to pay.

Unless we agree otherwise, payment is required in full before the appointment is formally confirmed. Your appointment becomes confirmed when Aceso Health has accepted the booking and the required payment has been successfully received.

If an appointment time has only been discussed or provisionally requested, that time remains subject to availability until the booking is accepted and payment is received.

7. Fees, payment and additional costs

We will tell you the applicable fee before you commit to a service. Where a fixed total price cannot reasonably be given in advance, we will explain how the price will be calculated and, as far as reasonably practicable, any likely additional costs.

Additional charges may arise where further services are recommended or requested, including additional consultations, blood tests, imaging, other investigations, procedures, specialist referrals, letters, reports, repeat prescription services or medication supplied by an external pharmacy.

We will normally obtain your agreement before providing an additional chargeable service.

Payment methods may include card payment and third-party payment processors used by Aceso Health, including facilities such as SumUp or Stripe. Where a third-party instalment or credit facility such as Klarna is made available through a payment platform, separate eligibility requirements and provider terms may apply.

Aceso Health may decline to provide a non-emergency private service where the required payment has not been made.

8. Remote consultations

Telephone and video consultations are available where clinically appropriate. Patients receiving remote consultations must normally be physically located within the United Kingdom at the time of the consultation.

Remote assessment has limitations. A clinician may decide that a physical examination, observations, diagnostic test, imaging or other face-to-face assessment is required before they can safely diagnose, prescribe or treat.

If a completed telephone or video consultation identifies the need for a separate face-to-face appointment, the remote consultation remains a completed professional service and the face-to-face appointment will normally be charged at the applicable full consultation fee.

For video consultations, you should, where reasonably possible, be in a private environment where you can discuss confidential health information safely.

9. Information you must provide

Safe care depends on accurate information. You must provide information that is truthful, complete and up to date to the best of your knowledge, including relevant symptoms, medical history, current medication, allergies, previous treatment and investigation results, and any other information reasonably requested by the clinician.

You must tell us about material changes in your health or medication that occur after information has been provided but before treatment or prescribing decisions are made.

Aceso Health is not responsible for consequences caused solely by material information being deliberately withheld or knowingly provided inaccurately where we could not reasonably have identified the omission or error. This does not affect our duty to provide services with reasonable care and skill.

10. Identity verification

We may ask for evidence of identity before providing certain services or issuing prescriptions. This may be particularly important for remote consultations, prescribing services and situations where there is uncertainty about a patient’s identity.

A prescription will only be issued where it is considered clinically necessary and appropriate for your condition.

We do not supply or dispense medications. If a prescription is issued, you will need to take it to a pharmacy where it can be dispensed.

All prescribing decisions are made in accordance with relevant national clinical guidelines and prescribing standards. Treatments and medications will only be recommended where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of the patient.

We may delay or decline treatment where we cannot reasonably verify identity or where identity concerns create a clinical, safeguarding or legal risk.

11. Children and young people

For routine private appointments involving a child under 16, Aceso Health will normally require the booking to be made by a parent or person with parental responsibility and for that person to attend with the child.

There may be circumstances in which a clinician considers it appropriate to speak to a young person privately or provide confidential healthcare in accordance with applicable law and professional guidance.

Young people aged 16 or 17 can normally book and attend appointments themselves, subject to the usual clinical assessment of consent, capacity and safeguarding considerations.

We may request evidence of parental responsibility or authority where appropriate.

12. Private prescriptions

A private prescription will only be issued where an appropriately qualified Aceso Health prescriber considers it clinically appropriate following a suitable clinical assessment.

Payment for a consultation does not create an entitlement to a prescription.

For an ordinary clinical consultation, the consultation fee includes the clinician’s consideration of whether prescribing is appropriate and, where a private prescription is issued as part of that consultation, there is normally no additional Aceso Health fee simply for issuing that prescription. Unless expressly included within a defined treatment programme, the medicine itself is not included in the consultation fee.

Aceso Health currently uses an electronic private prescription service, where appropriate. The prescription may be sent electronically so that it can be presented or released to an appropriate pharmacy.

The dispensing pharmacy is responsible for dispensing the medicine and will normally charge you separately for the medication. Aceso Health cannot guarantee that a pharmacy will have a medicine in stock or what price a pharmacy will charge.

Aceso Health may require further assessment, monitoring or a face-to-face consultation before prescribing certain medicines. We may also decline to prescribe medicines that are outside our clinical scope or that cannot be safely prescribed in the circumstances.

13. Repeat prescription service

Aceso Health may offer a repeat private prescription service where the medicine has previously been prescribed after an appropriate clinical assessment and the prescriber has enough current information to decide whether continuation is safe and appropriate.

The repeat prescription fee is a charge for the clinical and administrative prescribing service. It is not payment for the medicine itself. The medicine is dispensed by an independent pharmacy and is normally paid for separately by the patient.

A repeat prescription is not guaranteed. The prescriber may require a new consultation, examination, blood test, observation or other monitoring before another prescription is issued.

14. Weight-management programmes and prescription medicines

Aceso Health provides medically supervised weight-management services. These are treatment programmes requiring clinical assessment, prescribing decisions and ongoing monitoring.

Eligibility, choice of medicine, dose, dose changes, monitoring requirements and decisions to start, pause or stop treatment are clinical decisions made by an appropriately qualified prescriber. Payment does not guarantee access to a particular medicine or dose.

How weight-management medicines are dispensed

Aceso Health does not act as the dispensing pharmacy for prescription-only weight-management medicines. Where medication is prescribed, an independent registered pharmacy dispenses the medicine against the prescription and remains professionally responsible for the dispensing process.

By arrangement with the dispensing pharmacy, medication that has already been dispensed and labelled for the individual patient may be delivered to Aceso Health for collection. Collection at the clinic may be linked to required weight checks, observations or other clinical monitoring.

Aceso Health does not re-dispense, repackage or relabel medicines that have been dispensed by the pharmacy.

Programme prices

The overall price charged by Aceso Health for a weight-management treatment programme may include clinical management, prescribing, monitoring, administration, clinical support and the cost of medication dispensed by the independent pharmacy.

Prescription-only weight-management medicines cannot be purchased directly through the Aceso Health website. Payment for the weight-management programme is ordinarily taken in clinic as part of the monitored treatment pathway.

Treatment remains subject to clinical suitability, lawful prescribing, pharmacy dispensing and medication availability. If an item that has been paid for cannot be supplied, we will discuss an appropriate alternative, credit or refund for any part of the service that has not been provided, subject to applicable law and the circumstances of the dispensing process.

15. Medicines used as part of procedures

Some prescription medicines may be administered by an Aceso Health clinician as an integral part of a procedure, for example local anaesthetic used during a minor procedure or medication administered as part of a joint injection.

Such medicines are provided as part of the clinical procedure and are not sold as standalone medicines.

16. Blood tests and other diagnostic investigations

Aceso Health provides blood tests and other diagnostic investigations and may use specialist third-party laboratories, including Randox, to analyse samples.

Where you purchase the testing service from Aceso Health, your contract for that service is with Aceso Health unless we specifically tell you otherwise.

Test results may be accompanied by laboratory-generated information or explanatory comments and may be presented using Aceso Health branding. Unless expressly included in the service you purchased, this does not amount to a separate clinical consultation or personalised clinician interpretation of the results.

If you want an Aceso Health clinician to undertake a detailed clinical review or consultation about the results, an additional consultation fee will normally apply. We will tell you the fee before the consultation is booked.

Laboratory turnaround times are estimates and cannot be guaranteed. Delays may occur because of transportation, laboratory processing, quality control, the nature of the investigation or the need for a repeat sample.

Where a sample needs to be repeated, we will explain the reason and tell you whether any additional charge applies before proceeding.

17. Results and follow-up

Aceso Health will take reasonable steps to communicate clinically significant results in accordance with its clinical procedures and the nature of the service purchased.

You are responsible for keeping your telephone number, email address and other contact details accurate and for reviewing results made available to you.

You should not assume that the absence of a telephone call means that every investigation is normal. If you are uncertain about a result or your symptoms are continuing or worsening, you should seek appropriate medical advice.

Where a result indicates that urgent or emergency medical assessment may be required, we may advise you to attend an appropriate NHS or emergency service.

18. ECG and other monitoring equipment

Where Aceso Health supplies an ECG monitor or other medical device for temporary use, the equipment remains the property of Aceso Health or the relevant equipment provider.

You must use the equipment in accordance with the instructions given, take reasonable care of it, keep it reasonably secure and return it at the agreed time.

Aceso Health does not currently require a routine equipment deposit unless you are told otherwise before the service begins.

Where equipment is lost, not returned or damaged because of deliberate action or a failure to take reasonable care, Aceso Health may seek reimbursement of a reasonable repair or replacement cost. We will not charge for ordinary wear and tear, equipment failure or damage for which you could not reasonably be held responsible.

19. Third-party providers and referrals

Aceso Health may use or recommend other organisations as part of your care, including pharmacies, laboratories, imaging providers, hospitals, specialists and other healthcare professionals.

We will make it reasonably clear where another organisation is independently responsible for providing a particular service. Independent pharmacies remain professionally and legally responsible for medicines they dispense.

Where Aceso Health contracts with a third party in order to provide part of a service that you purchased from Aceso Health, nothing in these Terms removes any legal responsibility that Aceso Health owes to you.

20. Standard cancellation policy

Clinical time is reserved specifically for each booked patient. Our standard cancellation charges are designed to reflect the loss caused when reserved clinical time cannot reasonably be reallocated.

More than 48 hours before the appointment: no cancellation charge will normally apply and any appointment fee paid will normally be refunded.
Between 24 and 48 hours before the appointment: a cancellation charge of up to 50% of the appointment fee may apply.
Less than 24 hours before the appointment, or failure to attend: a cancellation charge of up to 100% of the appointment fee may apply.

Any cancellation charge is subject to your statutory rights. Aceso Health will not retain more than is reasonably justified by the direct loss caused by the cancellation and will take reasonable steps to reduce that loss, including taking account of whether the appointment was successfully reallocated.

Aceso Health may agree to reschedule an appointment instead of applying a cancellation charge. Any discretionary arrangement does not reduce your statutory rights.

21. Distance bookings and statutory cancellation rights

Where your contract with Aceso Health is concluded entirely at a distance, for example by telephone or electronic communication, you may have a statutory right to cancel a service contract during a 14-day cancellation period beginning on the day after the contract is entered into.

If you ask Aceso Health to provide an appointment or begin providing a service during that cancellation period, we may ask you to make an express request for the service to begin. If you then cancel after part of the service has been provided at your request, you may be required to pay a proportionate amount for the service already supplied where permitted by law.

If a service is fully performed during the cancellation period after you expressly requested early performance and acknowledged that the cancellation right would be lost once the service was fully performed, the statutory right to cancel that completed service may end.

Certain contracts for the supply of medicinal products under prescription are treated differently under consumer legislation. Where this is relevant to a treatment programme, we will apply the law applicable to that supply.

Your statutory rights take priority over any standard Aceso Health cancellation charge. A model cancellation form is included at the end of these Terms, although you do not have to use that form if you wish to tell us clearly that you are cancelling.

22. Late arrival and non-attendance

Please arrive on time for your appointment. If you arrive late, the clinician will decide whether the consultation can safely proceed within the remaining time, whether a shortened consultation would be inappropriate, or whether the appointment needs to be rescheduled.

A late arrival does not automatically entitle you to an extension of the booked appointment time. Any cancellation or rebooking charge will be considered reasonably and proportionately in the circumstances.

Failure to attend without notice may be treated as a cancellation within 24 hours for the purposes of the standard cancellation policy, subject to your statutory rights and the actual loss incurred by Aceso Health.

23. Cancellation or rescheduling by Aceso Health

Occasionally we may need to cancel or rearrange an appointment because of clinician illness, staffing problems, equipment failure, premises issues, serious operational disruption or another event outside our reasonable control.

If Aceso Health cancels an appointment before the service has been provided, you will normally be offered either a full refund of the amount paid for that appointment or a mutually agreed alternative appointment.

Where part of a service has already been provided, any refund will reflect the part of the service that remains unprovided and your applicable consumer rights.

24. Refunds

The fact that a consultation does not lead to the diagnosis, treatment, investigation or prescription that you hoped for does not itself create a right to a refund. The consultation fee is primarily payment for the healthcare professional’s time, expertise, assessment and advice.

This does not affect your rights where a service has not been provided as agreed, has not been provided with reasonable care and skill, or where another statutory cancellation or refund right applies.

Where we owe you a refund, we will normally return it using the original payment method where reasonably practicable.

25. Clinical outcomes and changes in your condition

Healthcare cannot guarantee a particular outcome. Symptoms and medical conditions may change after an assessment, and a clinician may need further information or investigations before reaching a diagnosis or treatment plan.

If your condition deteriorates, does not improve as expected or you develop new symptoms, you should seek further appropriate medical advice rather than relying solely on an earlier consultation. If symptoms are severe or potentially life-threatening, use emergency services.

26. Medical records, confidentiality and privacy

Aceso Health creates and maintains appropriate clinical records of the care it provides. Information submitted through our booking or clinical questionnaires may be incorporated into your electronic patient record.

Your information will be handled in accordance with applicable data-protection law, our Privacy Notice and professional duties of confidentiality.

Relevant information may be shared where lawful and necessary for your care, including with healthcare professionals, pharmacies, laboratories and other service providers involved in your treatment, and where required for safeguarding, regulatory or legal purposes.

Consent to medical treatment and the legal basis on which personal data is processed are separate matters. Our Privacy Notice explains how and why we process personal and health information.

27. Communication with you

We may use the telephone number, email address or other contact details you provide to communicate with you about appointments, results, prescriptions, treatment and other matters relating to your care.

You are responsible for providing accurate contact details and should tell us promptly if they change. Where electronic prescription or clinical information is sent to an email address or mobile number you have provided, you should ensure that you can access that account or device securely.

28. Communication with your NHS GP or other clinicians

Aceso Health does not make routine disclosure of every consultation to your NHS GP a condition of receiving care.

There may be circumstances where a clinician considers communication with your NHS GP or another healthcare professional important for safe continuity of care. We will normally discuss this with you where appropriate.

In exceptional circumstances, information may be disclosed without consent where this is required by law, necessary for safeguarding, or otherwise permitted under applicable professional and legal obligations.

29. Behaviour and safety

Aceso Health aims to provide a safe and respectful environment. We will not tolerate violence, threats, harassment, discriminatory abuse, sexual harassment, intimidation, deliberate damage to property or persistent seriously abusive behaviour towards staff, clinicians, contractors or other patients.

Where behaviour creates a safety risk or represents a serious breakdown in the therapeutic relationship, Aceso Health may decline to provide further non-emergency private services, taking account of clinical need, professional obligations, equality law and patient safety.

30. When we may decline or discontinue treatment

A clinician may decide that Aceso Health cannot safely provide or continue treatment where, for example:

the requested treatment is not clinically appropriate;
the service is outside the clinician’s competence or Aceso Health’s service scope;
necessary monitoring has not been completed;
material clinical information has not been provided;
there are concerns about medicine misuse or unsafe prescribing;
continued treatment would conflict with legal or professional requirements;
the patient needs a different level of care;
the patient repeatedly does not engage with essential safety monitoring; or
serious unacceptable behaviour makes continued provision unsafe.

Where reasonably practicable, we will explain the decision and advise you about appropriate alternative care.

31. Complaints and feedback

We welcome feedback and take concerns about our services seriously. If you wish to make a complaint, please contact:

Mark Murphy, Chief Clinical Officer and Complaints Lead
Email: hello@acesohealth.co.uk
Post: Aceso Health, The Annex, The Windmill, Ratcliffe Highway, Hoo, Rochester, ME3 8QB

We will manage complaints in accordance with our complaints procedure and applicable regulatory requirements. If your complaint cannot be resolved internally, we will provide information about any external escalation or independent review route that applies to your circumstances.

The Care Quality Commission regulates Aceso Health but does not normally resolve individual complaints on a patient’s behalf. Patients may nevertheless provide feedback about regulated services directly to the CQC.

32. Our responsibility to you

Aceso Health will provide its healthcare services with reasonable care and skill and in accordance with applicable professional and legal standards.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or statutory consumer rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Aceso Health is not responsible for loss caused solely by circumstances outside its reasonable control where it has taken reasonable steps to prevent or minimise the effect of those circumstances.

33. Website information and online enquiries

General information on the Aceso Health website is provided for information and does not replace individual clinical assessment.

The website may display information about treatments, medicines and treatment-programme prices. This does not mean that a medicine can be purchased online or that a particular medicine will be prescribed.

Prescription-only medicines cannot be ordered for unrestricted supply through the Aceso Health website. Submitting a website enquiry or callback request does not create a clinician-patient relationship, confirm an appointment or guarantee treatment or a prescription.

34. Changes to services, prices and these Terms

Aceso Health may change its services, future prices or these Terms from time to time. Changes will normally apply prospectively.

Where you have already entered into a contract for a specific service at an agreed price, we will not simply increase that agreed price retrospectively unless you agree to the change or there is another lawful basis for doing so.

Where an ongoing treatment programme is affected by a future price or terms change, we will provide reasonable information about the change before it takes effect.

35. Severability and waiver

If a court or other competent authority decides that an individual provision of these Terms is unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply.

If Aceso Health does not immediately enforce a right under these Terms, this does not mean that we have given up that right.

36. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the United Kingdom, you retain any mandatory rights that apply to you and any rights concerning where legal proceedings may be brought.

37. Contacting us

Aceso Health
The Primary and Urgent Care Alliance Ltd trading as Aceso Health
The Annex, The Windmill, Ratcliffe Highway, Hoo, Rochester, ME3 8QB
Telephone: 0203 633 6000
Email: hello@acesohealth.co.uk
Company number: 12599626

Appendix 1 - Model cancellation form

You may use this form if you wish to cancel a qualifying distance or off-premises service contract.

You do not have to use this form; you may instead contact Aceso Health clearly stating that you wish to cancel.

To: Aceso Health, The Annex, The Windmill, Ratcliffe Highway, Hoo, Rochester, ME3 8QB / hello@acesohealth.co.uk

I / we hereby give notice that I / we cancel

Service / appointment

Date contract entered into

Patient name

Patient address

Signature (paper form only)

Date