GP on Demand: The Employee Benefit You Can't Afford to Ignore

The Case Has Changed

There was a time when offering employees access to a private GP felt like a luxury reserved for senior executives. That time has passed.

Sickness absence in UK workplaces reached an average of 9.4 sick days per employee in 2025, the highest figure in more than 15 years and a 62% increase on pre-pandemic levels, according to the CIPD's Health and Wellbeing at Work Report. Meanwhile, the NHS waiting list, though down slightly from its peak, still stood at more than 7.22 million cases in early 2026, with a median wait of 13.6 weeks for treatment. That is nearly double the pre-pandemic figure.

The conclusion for HR leaders is blunt: employees are not getting timely healthcare through the NHS, and the gap lands squarely in the workplace. When people cannot see a GP quickly, minor health issues become prolonged absences. And when they do come into work unwell, presenteeism compounds the problem. The IPPR estimated the total cost of employee ill-health in the UK at £103 billion in 2023, the majority of it driven not by sick days but by people working through illness.

That is the context in which GP on Demand has moved from a premium perk to an operational necessity.

What GP on Demand Actually Means

The term covers employer-provided access to a GP, typically through a digital platform, that bypasses NHS waiting times. Appointments are usually available within hours rather than weeks, can happen via video, telephone or secure messaging, and are accessible outside the traditional working day.

Importantly, GP on Demand is not the same as an Employee Assistance Programme. EAPs are primarily designed for mental health support: counselling, crisis lines, and signposting. A virtual GP service handles clinical consultations. That means prescriptions, sick notes, specialist referrals, and diagnostic guidance. The two services are complementary, not interchangeable, and organisations that conflate them often discover they have a meaningful gap in their health provision.

It is worth being specific about what good looks like. The strongest services offer same-day appointment availability, prescriptions sent electronically to a local pharmacy, the ability to generate fit notes for employers, referral letters to specialists, and a clinical record of consultations. Some providers also offer access to mental health practitioners and physiotherapists within the same platform, which extends the value considerably.

Why July Is the Right Moment to Review Yours

For many UK organisations, July sits squarely in mid-year review territory: H1 benefits audits, Q3 planning cycles, and board-level conversations about productivity and absence costs. It is also worth noting that summer is when NHS GP access tends to deteriorate further, as GP practices reduce capacity during the school holidays. The gap that employer-provided virtual access fills becomes particularly visible at this time of year.

Add to that the commercial pressures introduced in April 2026, when HMRC mandated the payrolling of benefits in kind. Employers are now required to report and pay Income Tax and Class 1A NICs on most employee benefits through payroll, replacing the P11D process for most organisations. That change has prompted HR and finance teams to review their entire benefit-in-kind portfolio, including health provisions. If you have not revisited how your GP on Demand benefit is structured, valued, and communicated since April, now is a reasonable moment to do so.

The Utilisation Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About

Here is the uncomfortable reality. Around 90% of UK employers now offer some form of virtual GP access as part of their benefits package. But availability and utilisation are not the same thing.

Like EAPs, virtual GP services frequently suffer from low employee awareness. When benefits are buried in a handbook or mentioned once at induction, usage rates stay low regardless of how good the service actually is. And low utilisation means the benefit is not reducing absence, not improving health outcomes, and not supporting retention. The employer is paying for something their people are not using.

Research from Doctor Care Anywhere found that nearly two-thirds of employees who had used a virtual GP service said it reduced their time off work. That is a significant return. But it depends entirely on employees knowing the service exists and feeling confident about how to access it.

The question HR teams should be asking in July is not simply "Do we have GP on Demand?" but "Do our employees actually use it, and do they know they can?"

The Family Coverage Question

One of the most frequently overlooked dimensions of GP on Demand is whether it extends to employees' dependants.

Employees with children are statistically more likely to take time off to care for sick family members than employees without. A GP on Demand service that covers an employee's partner and children addresses this directly, reducing the family-related absence that sits outside traditional occupational health solutions.

Family coverage as a feature of health provision is increasingly seen as a meaningful differentiator. When organisations are competing for talent in sectors where pay increases are constrained, the ability to say "we cover your whole family" carries genuine weight. It is the kind of benefit that employees remember and mention when recommending an employer to others.

Mental Health: The Other Dimension

Mental ill-health is now the leading cause of long-term absence and the second most common cause of short-term absence in UK workplaces, according to CIPD 2025 data. The HSE reported that mental health conditions now make up 52% of all work-related ill-health, with nearly one million workers reporting stress, depression or anxiety caused or worsened by their job in 2024 to 2025.

This matters for GP on Demand in two ways. First, a virtual GP appointment is often the gateway to mental health support: a GP can provide a diagnosis, write a referral, or prescribe where appropriate. Second, organisations that offer a GP on Demand service that includes access to mental health practitioners within the same platform are providing something genuinely more valuable than one focused solely on physical health.

The connection between physical and mental health provision is central to building a credible wellbeing hub strategy. GP on Demand that addresses both dimensions in an integrated way tends to see higher utilisation and better outcomes.

Making the Business Case

If you are presenting GP on Demand to a CFO or CEO who is focused on cost, the numbers are not difficult to build.

Start with the CIPD's figure of 9.4 sick days per employee per year. Multiply that by your headcount and by a reasonable daily cost of absence (typically calculated as salary divided by working days, plus management time and reduced output). That is your baseline cost of absence.

Even conservative assumptions about virtual GP access suggest meaningful reductions. If the service prevents even one additional sick day per employee per year, the cost-benefit calculation in most organisations is strongly positive. For context, the UK Government's 2026 Keep Britain Working report estimated that employers lose approximately £85 billion per year in lost output and costs linked to ill-health. A well-utilised GP on Demand service is one of the most direct interventions against that figure.

The other business case lever is retention. The CIPHR employee benefits survey of 2025 found that access to private GP services is valued by approximately 29 to 30% of UK employees as a top benefit, placing it firmly in the tier of benefits that influence whether someone stays or leaves.

What to Look for When Evaluating Providers

Whether you are selecting a GP on Demand provider for the first time or reviewing an existing contract, the key variables are consistent.

Appointment availability is the baseline. Services that cannot offer a same-day or next-day appointment for urgent queries are failing at their primary function. Check what the average wait time has been in practice, not just what is promised in the sales pitch.

Prescriptions and fit notes matter. A consultation that cannot result in a prescription or a fit note is only partly useful. Confirm that your provider operates with fully qualified GPs who can issue both.

Coverage scope is worth clarifying. Does the service cover the employee only, or dependants? Is it available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or restricted to business hours? Is it available to remote workers and employees working outside the UK? For global or dispersed teams, global employee rewards strategies increasingly require health provision that travels with the employee.

Finally, integration matters. A GP on Demand service that sits in isolation from your wider benefits platform creates friction. Employees should be able to access it through the same portal as their other health and wellbeing tools. At Each Person, virtual GP access is available through the healthcare marketplace alongside other health benefits, enabling a joined-up employee experience rather than a collection of disconnected services.

Communication Is Not Optional

The last point on this is one that applies to almost every benefit but is especially relevant to GP on Demand: communication determines everything.

A benefit that exists but is unknown might as well not exist. HR teams that invest in a virtual GP service and then communicate it once in the welcome pack will see utilisation in the low single figures. HR teams that actively promote it through regular benefit communications, managers, internal channels, and seasonal moments will see genuinely meaningful uptake.

The evidence supports this. Nearly two-thirds of employees who used a virtual GP service said it reduced their time off work. The challenge is getting them to use it in the first place. That requires proactive communication, visible leadership support, and a culture where accessing health support early is seen as normal rather than exceptional.

In July, with mid-year reviews, increased summer absence, and a year of post-Budget cost pressures in the background, that conversation is worth having.