Accessing medical and health support via health club memberships is seeing growing consumer demand in the UK, according to recent data from healthcare providers, HealthHero and Health Key. There is also growing demand for longevity and prevention advice.

Health Hero says 63,000 people in the UK have registered for a private GP appointment service via their gym membership in the two years since January 2024. 

Fees for this service are typically in the region of £20/month, making this a roughly £15 million impact, with health clubs taking a cut of the fees.

The highest uptake is among men under 40 and members in the North of England and the Midlands.

Since January 2024, HealthHero has partnered with more than 10 health club brands across England and Wales to offer eligible members 24/7, on-demand digital GP appointments and physiotherapy as part of their membership package. Members can book an appointment via an app for an online GP consultation.

Analysis of customers shows that three of the top 10 regions using its GP services via health clubs overlap with Integrated Care Boards that have significant numbers of patients facing long waits for NHS GP appointments. In Nottingham, Leicester and Leeds, for example, around one in four patients wait more than two weeks for an NHS GP appointment. 

In Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB alone, NHS England data shows that 58,000 GP appointments were delayed more than 28 days after the time of booking in September 2025.

Twenty eight per cent of people registered for HealthHero’s service via their club are under 30 and research from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network shows a majority of 18- to 24-year-olds are now turn to private healthcare for GP appointments.

Ranjan Singh, CEO and co-founder at HealthHero, says: “Your gym card is fast becoming a health lifeline, not just an access pass to workout sessions.

“Through our data, we’re seeing more people use their gym membership to speak to a GP quickly, at a time and place that works around their busy lives. Digital healthcare lets people manage their health in the same flexible way they manage so many other parts of their lives – whether that’s from home, on a lunch break or after a workout.

“If we want people to get help earlier, especially in communities facing long waits, we have to make access as easy as possible. By partnering with health clubs and gyms, we’re creating a one-stop shop for more of people’s health and fitness needs, bringing care closer to everyday life.”

Among the operators to offer HealthHero's services are Fitness First, Parkwood Leisure, Everyone Active and Bannatyne.

Alternative provider, HealthKey, is also reporting growth. The company is working with PureGym, Plymouth Leisure, Kore Sandwell (previously Sandwell Leisure), as well as F45 and its Pilates brand FS8, among others.

David Joerring, CEO and founder of HealthKey told HCM that for younger members, text-based GP access now represents 76 per cent of utilisation, demonstrating how the right access model directly influences engagement.

Demand for wider health-based support is also growing, over and above the telehealth model, to include mental health support and more preventative services: "Over the past six months alone, we’ve enabled more than 15,000 members to access wider health services, such as in-person physiotherapy and mental health support, which are now seeing significantly higher utilisation than GP services," says Joerring. "This reinforces the commercial opportunity for operators to deliver more holistic, accessible health propositions that strengthen long-term member value."

At 15,000 users in six months and 63,000 sign-ups in 24 months, HealthKey and HealthHero are reporting significant demand, suggesting this market could scale rapidly over the next five years.

“GP access through health club, fitness and leisure memberships has moved from being a value-add to a baseline expectation" says Joerring. "What’s driving commercial impact is not just offering access, but making it frictionless – particularly through digital channels."

The first operator to launch a medial membership was SIV (Sheffield International Venues) which did a partnership with Westfield Health in 2018 to launch a Fitness Unlimited package that allowed people to add 24/7 access to a doctor over the phone, as well as telephone counselling and membership to an online mental health and wellbeing service. Fees were between £26.60 and £38 a month, including membership and access to all leisure facilities. 

Find out more about medical memberships in our HCM feature here.