About the clinic

Independent since 2013, owned by the doctors who work here.

How it started

One doctor who wanted longer appointments

Dr Elspeth Rankin worked for eleven years as a partner in an NHS Lothian practice. She opened Ravelston Health in 2013 because ten-minute appointments were not long enough, and because she was tired of telling people the wait for a scan would be months.

The practice took a Georgian townhouse on Ravelston Terrace. The ground floor became consulting rooms, the first floor became diagnostics, and in 2018 the old kitchens were dug out to make a physiotherapy gym.

There are now eleven clinicians and twenty-six staff. The model has not changed: longer appointments, tests in the building, and the same doctor each time if you want one.

14,200appointments a year
96%routine requests seen within 5 working days
30 minstandard GP appointment
4.9from 412 Google reviews

How we are run

Everyone here is on a salary

No clinician is paid per appointment. There is no commission on tests, no bonus for procedures and no target for follow-ups. That is what lets a GP here tell you a test is not worth doing.

We are not owned by an insurer, a hospital group or a private equity fund, and we take no referral fees. When we send you somewhere, it is because we think they are good.

Clinical governance

A doctor reviews every abnormal result before it reaches you. Every significant event goes to the monthly governance meeting. We audit our minor surgery outcomes yearly and our antibiotic prescribing quarterly.

Complaints go to Aileen Sutherland, our practice manager. We acknowledge them within three working days and answer within twenty.

Staff at the monthly clinical governance meeting

Regulation

Who checks on us

Healthcare Improvement Scotland regulates independent clinics in Scotland. We are service IS-3184 and were last inspected in March 2026. The Care Quality Commission you may have read about covers England only, so it does not apply to us.

The GMC holds the register our doctors are on. The NMC holds our nurses’ registrations and the HCPC our physiotherapists’. Every number is published on that person’s page, and all three registers are public and free to search.

The Information Commissioner’s Office holds our data protection registration, Z8241663. Your records stay in the UK and are never used for marketing.

Everyone here who works with children is a member of the PVG scheme.