About Quokka Health

What Quokka is

Quokka Health is a marketplace for private healthcare in the UK. You search for the kind of appointment you need, near where you are, and get back named clinicians with the price of that appointment and the times they actually have free. You pick a time and book it.

The thing that makes it different from a directory is that the times are real. Most listings on Quokka are read directly from the practice's own booking system, so what you see is what their diary says — not a phone number and an invitation to find out.

How much is on it

Quokka currently lists 2,900 private practices across the UK, covering 18,300 clinicians at 4,900 clinic locations. These figures are counted from the live site rather than written down, so they move as practices join.

The biggest specialties are dentistry, physiotherapy and private GP appointments, with osteopaths, chiropractors, podiatrists, audiologists and others alongside them. Browse by location to see what is near you.

What you can do on a listing

Not every practice is connected to Quokka in the same way, and the listing always says which kind you are looking at. This matters, because it decides what the times on the page are worth:

• Unclaimed listings. We read the practice's public booking system to show you indicative times and prices, but the practice has not claimed its profile. Times are sourced automatically and may be up to 24 hours old — Quokka can't confirm them. You finish the booking on the practice's own site.
• Verified practices. The practice has claimed its listing and confirmed its details. Availability is refreshed from the practice and may be up to 24 hours old. Booking still finishes on their site.
• Verified and connected practices. The practice has connected its practice-management system to Quokka. You get live availability, straight from the practice diary, and you book and pay here in one go.

We would rather show you an indicative time and say so than show you nothing. Being explicit about which tier a listing is in is the point — a time we cannot vouch for should never look like one we can.

Where our information comes from

Practice and clinician details come from the practice's own website and its practice-management system, and are refreshed automatically. Appointment times and prices come from the same booking systems the practices use to run their diaries. Where a practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission we show its CQC rating and the date of the inspection it came from, and link to the CQC's own record so you can check it yourself.

Information provided by the Care Quality Commission is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we make money

Practices pay us, not patients. When a booking is taken and paid for through Quokka we take a commission from the practice, and practices can also pay for a membership that lowers that commission. We do not add a booking fee to the price you see — the price on the listing is the price of the appointment.

Premium membership does affect the order of search results. Results are ordered first by how soon the appointment is — a slot today always beats a slot tomorrow, whatever anyone pays — and then, among appointments on the same day, by the practice tier, where premium members sit above connected, verified and unclaimed practices. Distance decides the rest. We would rather tell you that than let you find out.

What Quokka is not

• We are not a clinical service and we do not give medical advice. Care is provided by the practice you book with, and your relationship is with them.
• We are not an insurer and we do not process insurance claims.
• We do not vet clinicians. Every clinician in the UK is regulated by their own professional body — the GMC for doctors, the HCPC for physiotherapists, the GDC for dentists — and those registers are public. A listing on Quokka is not a recommendation, and being listed here is not a substitute for checking the register.
• We are not the NHS and are not affiliated with it. Everything listed here is private care, paid for by you or your insurer.

If something on a listing is wrong

Most listings are built automatically from what a practice publishes, so mistakes happen. If you run a practice, you can claim your listing and correct it — anything you set by hand is kept and never overwritten by a later sync. If you are a patient and something looks wrong, tell us and we will look at it.