Terms and Conditions

Version 2. In force from 6 November 2026.

1. These terms

These are the terms on which Rheumatology Consultancy Limited arranges and bills private rheumatology services, which Dr Liubov Borukhson provides personally at the hospital. They cover consultations in person, by video and by telephone; point-of-care ultrasound, injections and other procedures she carries out; prescriptions, letters and reports; and the administration that goes with them.

They apply to every appointment booked with the practice from the date above. When we confirm your appointment we send you a copy of these terms and a summary of the points that matter most, so that you have them before the day. You can save or print this page at any time.

An in-person appointment takes place at a hospital. The hospital registers you as its patient for the visit and provides the room, the reception and nursing staff, its pharmacy, and the tests and imaging it carries out. It makes no charge of its own for the consultation or for a point-of-care scan; what it does charge for, on its own terms, is its tests and imaging, medicines from its pharmacy and, usually, the procedure at an injection (section 5). When you register, the hospital may ask for your card details for its own charges; those are held by the hospital, not by us. These terms cover Dr Borukhson's professional services and the practice's administration, not the hospital's.

Our fees page shows our current fees, and our privacy policy explains how we handle information about you. Both form part of these terms.

2. Who we are

Rheumatology Consultancy Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, company number 16958700. Our registered office is C/O Sandison Easson & Co, Rex Buildings, Alderley Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 1HY. We are not registered for VAT, and no VAT is charged on our fees.

Dr Borukhson is a Consultant Rheumatologist, registered with a licence to practise with the General Medical Council, registration number 7021928, and on its Specialist Register in rheumatology since August 2022; her specialist title was granted in the United Kingdom. She practises under the GMC's Good medical practice.

Dr Borukhson holds professional indemnity for her private practice with the Medical Defence Union.

Dr Borukhson has no financial interest in the facilities or equipment used in your care.

We are registered with the Information Commission, the United Kingdom's data protection regulator, known as the ICO, under reference ZC080014, which you can check on its public register at ico.org.uk.

You can compare independent information about the quality of private treatment offered at the hospital and other private healthcare providers from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) website: www.phin.org.uk.

3. Where we see you, and who we treat

Dr Borukhson sees private patients at the private facilities run by Imperial College Healthcare Private Care at three London hospitals: The Thames View at Charing Cross Hospital, The Sainsbury Wing at Hammersmith Hospital, and The Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital. Your confirmation tells you where your appointment is; our locations page gives directions.

The practice treats adults only and sees no one under 18: you must be 18 or over on the day of your appointment.

Consultations are available in English, Russian and Ukrainian. If you need an interpreter for another language, tell us when you book; we will ask the hospital what can be arranged and whether there is a charge. Communication support you need because of a disability, such as a British Sign Language interpreter, is a reasonable adjustment and is free.

If you have a disability or an access need, tell us when you book, or at any time. We make reasonable adjustments at no charge, including information in another format, and we take any such need into account before applying any term about notice or timing.

You are welcome to bring someone with you.

NHS appointments are arranged through your GP via the usual referral route, not through the practice, and these terms do not apply to them.

The practice is not an emergency service. In an emergency call 999 or go to your nearest emergency department. For urgent advice when the practice is closed, call NHS 111.

4. Booking an appointment

You can book by telephone on +44 (0) 20 8152 3999, by email to info@rcl.london, by WhatsApp, or through the enquiry form on our contact page. Our clinic hours are 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. A message sent through the form or by WhatsApp is a request; it does not book an appointment until we have confirmed one with you.

We confirm every appointment in writing, by email unless you ask for another way. The confirmation gives the date, time and place; Dr Borukhson's fee for the appointment; the insurers that recognise her; the points in sections 7 and 9 that apply to you; and a copy of these terms. Please read it and tell us at once if anything is wrong.

If you are paying for yourself, your appointment is booked when we receive the consultation fee (section 6). We hold the proposed time for two working days while your payment arrives, or until the end of the working day for an appointment sooner than that; after that we may offer the time to someone else, and we tell you if we do. If you are using insurance or a sponsor, your appointment is booked when we send the confirmation.

No referral is needed to be seen here. If you are claiming on private medical insurance, your insurer will usually want a referral from your GP, or a similar document, before it authorises the visit.

Please arrive at least five minutes early, as the hospital asks, for its registration. A new appointment is allocated an hour, sometimes more; a follow-up is allocated half an hour, or an hour where a scan or a procedure may be needed. If you arrive late, Dr Borukhson sees you for the time that remains. If you arrive more than 20 minutes late for a new appointment, or more than 10 minutes late for a follow-up, the appointment is rebooked and counts as a missed appointment under section 9, unless she can still see you usefully in the time that remains, in which case she does.

5. Our fees

Our fees page shows our current fees for a new appointment and a follow-up appointment. The fee is the same at all three hospitals, and the same whether a consultation is in person, by video or by telephone. Your confirmation states the fee for the appointment you have booked, and that fee holds for the appointment even if our fees change after you book.

The consultation fee covers the consultation itself: the history, the examination, Dr Borukhson's opinion and plan, any prescription written during the consultation, and the clinic letter. Point-of-care ultrasound, an intramuscular injection and an ultrasound-guided injection have fixed fees of their own, shown on our fees page and stated in your confirmation; they are charged in addition, and are always discussed and agreed with you before they are done. Point-of-care ultrasound is charged per area scanned, an area being a region such as a knee, a shoulder, a wrist, a hand or a foot; where more than one area is scanned, the total is agreed with you before the scan and is never more than the per-area fee for each area. A fee we quote for anything else holds for three months.

Where the plan involves further tests or treatment beyond the visit, we give you a written estimate of Dr Borukhson's fees for the course of treatment as a whole, with the reason for it and a note of what it does not include, within two working days of the consultation or before the treatment if sooner; anything done in the same visit is agreed with you on the day.

The hospital makes no charge of its own for the consultation or for a point-of-care scan. For an injection it usually makes a charge of its own for the procedure, separate from our fee; we tell you the hospital's charge before you agree to the injection. Any such charge, and the hospital's charges for blood tests, the imaging it carries out and medicines dispensed by its pharmacy, are the hospital's, at its rates, billed by the hospital to you or to your insurer. If you want to know the hospital's charge for anything before it is done, tell us and we will find out for you.

Any discount or special arrangement must be agreed with you in writing before the appointment, except a reduction for a scan of more than one area, which may be agreed with you on the day, before the scan; otherwise the published fees apply.

6. Paying for yourself

If you are paying for yourself, the consultation fee is paid when you book, and your appointment is booked when we receive it.

You can pay by bank transfer, quoting your surname and the appointment date, or by debit or credit card, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, through the secure payment link we send you. We do not accept cash. There is no charge for paying by any of these methods. We do not see or store card details: card payments are taken by Square, and bank transfers are handled by our bank.

Our bank details:

• Account name: Rheumatology Consultancy Limited
• Sort code: 04-06-05
• Account number: 29952709
• For payments from outside the UK: BIC (SWIFT) CLRBGB22; IBAN GB63 CLRB 0406 0529 9527 09

These details are the same on every invoice. When you set up a transfer, check that your bank confirms the payee name as Rheumatology Consultancy Limited. We never announce a change of bank details by email or text message: if you receive a message asking you to pay to different details, do not pay; call us on the number on this website.

Dr Borukhson's fees for ultrasound, injections or other procedures agreed on the day are invoiced after the appointment and are due within 14 days of the date of the invoice. You receive a receipted invoice for every payment.

Where these terms give you a refund, we pay it in full, by the method you paid, within 14 days of your cancelling, or of our agreeing that a refund is due, with nothing deducted.

7. Using private medical insurance

Dr Borukhson is recognised by Bupa, Bupa Global, AXA Health, Aviva, Vitality, WPA, Healix and Allianz Care.

Your policy is a contract between you and your insurer. Obtaining pre-authorisation for the appointment, before the appointment, is your responsibility as the policyholder. Most insurers also want a referral from your GP, or a similar document. Please check the terms of your policy, particularly the level and type of outpatient cover you have, including any limit on consultation fees.

Dr Borukhson is fee assured with every insurer she works with. This means that where your policy covers the appointment and it has been pre-authorised, her consultation fee is covered in full by your insurer and there is no shortfall for you to pay. It does not widen what your policy covers, and it does not remove any excess your policy carries.

Once the appointment is pre-authorised, we invoice your insurer directly and you pay us nothing on the day. If your policy carries an excess, your insurer pays our invoice less the excess, and we then ask you for the excess, payable within 14 days of our invoice.

Anything your policy does not cover, including a service you choose to have knowing that it is not covered, is payable by you at the published fee. If your insurer declines our invoice, or tells us that part of it is yours to pay, we invoice you and payment is due within 14 days. Where an insurer is slow to settle, we pursue the insurer, not you.

Insurers do not usually pay for missed appointments or late cancellations, and we do not send them the charge: a charge under section 9 is invoiced to you at the fee for the appointment you booked and is due within 14 days.

A dispute about what your policy covers is between you and your insurer. If your insurer does not resolve a complaint, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider it; our insurance guide explains the steps.

8. Sponsored and embassy patients

If an embassy, an employer or another sponsor is paying for your care, please arrange for a Letter of Guarantee covering Dr Borukhson's fees to reach the practice before your first appointment. It should name you, give a settlement contact at the sponsor, and say what is covered. The hospital's charges are arranged separately with the hospital's international office. If a Letter of Guarantee is not in place, we ask you to pay on the day and reclaim the cost from your sponsor; we provide the receipted invoice and any supporting paperwork you need. A charge under section 9 is yours to pay unless the Letter of Guarantee covers it.

9. Cancelling, rearranging and missed appointments

Dr Borukhson's time is reserved for you from the moment your appointment is booked. If you cannot attend, please tell us as early as you can, so that the time can be offered to someone else.

You can cancel or rearrange by telephone, email or WhatsApp. Tell us, not the hospital: we pass your cancellation to the hospital, which asks for its own notice. Notice counts from the time your message reaches the practice; a message sent outside our clinic hours counts from the time you sent it. We confirm every cancellation; if you have not heard from us within one working day, please contact us again.

Except where you cancel under your right to cancel within 14 days (below), the charges are:

• 48 hours or more before the appointment: no charge, and any fee you have paid is refunded in full or carried to a new appointment, as you prefer;
• less than 48 hours but at least 24 hours before the appointment: 50% of the fee for the appointment;
• less than 24 hours before the appointment, or if you do not attend: the full fee for the appointment.

If you have paid in advance, the charge is kept from your payment and the rest is refunded. If you have not, we invoice you and payment is due within 14 days. Insurers do not usually reimburse these charges.

After a missed appointment, a further appointment is booked once any charge due has been settled and, if you are paying for yourself, the fee for the new appointment has been paid; nothing in this affects Dr Borukhson's duty to arrange continuing care where it is needed.

We understand that emergencies happen. Contact us as early as you can and we will always take genuine circumstances into account. We do not apply these charges where a disability or an access need prevented you from giving notice.

Occasionally we have to cancel or move an appointment, for clinical or hospital reasons. We offer you the earliest alternative, or a full refund of anything you have paid, as you prefer. Where the cancellation is for a reason outside our control, such as illness or the hospital's arrangements, we do not reimburse travel or other costs.

Your right to cancel within 14 days. If you booked by telephone, email, WhatsApp or through this website, you have a legal right to cancel the booking within 14 days after the day your booking is made (section 4), without giving a reason, by telling us clearly that you cancel, by telephone, email, WhatsApp or post; writing is best, since it is for you to show that you cancelled in time, and you can use the form at the end of these terms. Most of our appointments fall within those 14 days. By booking an appointment that falls within them you expressly ask us to provide the consultation before they have passed, and you acknowledge that once the consultation has taken place and its clinic letter has been written, the service has been fully provided and the right to cancel ends. If you cancel within the 14 days and before the appointment, we refund in full anything you have paid, whatever notice you give, and the charges above do not apply. If you cancel after the consultation has begun but before the service is complete, you pay for the part provided, in proportion to the whole fee. If you do not attend, the full fee applies, since the appointment was held for you at the time you asked for, and cancelling afterwards does not entitle you to a refund of it.

10. Video and telephone consultations

As a rule, new assessments are in person, so that examination and point-of-care ultrasound can happen in the same visit. Video and telephone consultations are offered for follow-ups and for discussing results, where Dr Borukhson considers them appropriate and you agree. The fee is the same as for the equivalent consultation in person.

Video consultations use Microsoft Teams; we send you the link with the confirmation. You need a private, quiet place and a reliable connection. At the start, Dr Borukhson confirms who you are and where you are. If she finds that she cannot assess you safely without seeing you, she will say so and arrange an in-person appointment, and the fee you have paid is carried over to it.

If you are outside the United Kingdom, we can offer a telephone consultation, or by arrangement a video consultation, for advice and to discuss results. Prescriptions and statements of fitness for work are issued only to patients who are in the United Kingdom at the time of the consultation.

Remote consultations are not for emergencies. We do not record consultations. If you would like to record one for your own use, say so at the start.

11. Examinations, scans, injections and chaperones

Examination is part of the consultation. Point-of-care ultrasound is carried out in the same visit where it would help, at the fee section 5 describes. A chaperone is offered for any intimate examination and is available on request for any examination, scan or injection; you may decline one. The offer, and the name of any chaperone present, are recorded in your notes. If you would like a chaperone and none is available, the examination is deferred where that is clinically safe; where it cannot wait, Dr Borukhson explains the options and proceeds only with your agreement.

Any injection or other procedure is discussed and agreed with you before it is done, including its purpose, its risks and its fee, and your consent is recorded. The hospital may also ask you to sign its own consent form.

12. Ultrasound images

Ultrasound during your consultation is point-of-care scanning: Dr Borukhson scans the relevant joints or tendons herself, there and then, so that what she sees informs her assessment on the day. It is not a separate imaging examination with its own report, and images are not recorded or kept unless this has been arranged with you beforehand. What your clinical record holds instead is a written account of the scan: which areas were scanned, what was found, and what was decided, and this is reflected in your clinic letter. If you would like images from your scan, please tell the practice when you book, before your appointment; we will let you know whether it can be arranged at the clinic you are attending, as this depends on the equipment and the hospital's arrangements. Where a formal ultrasound examination with stored images and a written report is what you need, Dr Borukhson will say so and arrange it.

13. Prescriptions

If you need medication, Dr Borukhson issues a private prescription during your consultation at no extra charge. Between appointments, patients under her active care (reviewed within the last six months) can request a repeat by emailing prescriptions@rcl.london with their name, date of birth and the medication needed. Requests are usually completed within 2 to 3 working days and carry a £25 administration fee, so please ask at least a week before you run out. That said, if you ever need one more quickly, please contact the practice, as a same-day prescription can usually be arranged. Please note the prescription service is not an emergency service: if you are seriously unwell, seek urgent medical care. Prescriptions can be dispensed at the hospital pharmacy, delivered to your home by Pharmacierge, or sent to a pharmacy of your choice; the cost of the medicine itself is separate.

Where a medicine is suitable for routine GP prescribing, Dr Borukhson can write to your GP with the full details and ask whether they are willing to continue it on the NHS; that decision rests with your GP. Specialist medicines usually need to remain under specialist prescribing and monitoring while your care is private.

Dr Borukhson prescribes only after an adequate assessment. Where she is not your regular prescriber, she asks your agreement to contact your GP if she needs more information, and she writes to your GP when an episode of care ends, under section 14. If you do not agree to that contact, or you object to the letter, and she considers that prescribing without it would be unsafe, she explains the risks, records your decision and may decline to prescribe. Controlled drugs and medicines liable to misuse are not prescribed without access to your records.

14. Letters, results, reports and forms

After each appointment a clinic letter goes to your GP, and to any other clinician directly involved in your care, as part of your care, unless you tell us you object; you receive a copy. Results of tests Dr Borukhson has requested are reviewed by her and communicated to you by letter, by email or at a follow-up consultation, as agreed at the visit; a result that needs prompt action is communicated by telephone.

Letters written as part of your care, including the clinic letter and referrals to other clinicians, are included in the fee. A letter or form you ask for outside a consultation, for example for an employer, an insurer's claim form or a travel company, carries an administration fee of £50 where it needs no review of your records, and £95 where Dr Borukhson must review your records to write it; we aim to complete it within seven working days. A statement of fitness for work can be issued for a condition under Dr Borukhson's care, at the £50 fee.

Medico-legal reports are not covered by these terms. They are provided only under terms of engagement agreed in writing beforehand.

15. Your information and your records

Rheumatology Consultancy Limited is the data controller for the information the practice holds about you. Our privacy policy explains what we hold, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and your rights, and it forms part of these terms. In brief: we treat information about you as confidential; we share it with your GP and the other clinicians treating you, as part of your care, unless you tell us you object; we share it with your insurer or sponsor only to the extent needed to invoice and to support your claim; and otherwise we share it only with your consent or where the law requires. Clinical records are kept for at least eight years from the end of your treatment, and for 20 years where your condition is long-term or may recur, as most rheumatic conditions are. You may ask for a copy of the information we hold about you at any time, the first copy free of charge, and we answer within one month, or within the longer time our privacy policy allows for a complex request. After a patient's death, a personal representative, or a person with a claim arising from the death, may apply for access to the records under the Access to Health Records Act 1990, free of charge.

16. Keeping in touch

We write to you by email unless you ask for post. Please tell us if your contact details change. Ordinary email is not encrypted end to end; if you would rather receive letters or results another way, tell us. WhatsApp is for appointment and administrative enquiries; it is not monitored for urgent or clinical matters, so please do not send clinical information that way. We may send appointment reminders; attending remains your responsibility whether or not a reminder is sent.

17. Unpaid fees

Our invoices are due within 14 days of their date unless these terms say otherwise. If an invoice is unpaid, we send a reminder. If it remains unpaid 30 days after the reminder, we may ask the hospital to collect it on our behalf, refer it to a debt collection agency, or recover it through the court, which may add interest and costs. We do not add interest or charges of our own. We take no recovery action on an invoice that is the subject of an open complaint. While an invoice is overdue we may ask for payment in advance for further appointments you pay for yourself, and may decline to book a non-urgent appointment until it is settled; nothing in this affects Dr Borukhson's duty to arrange continuing care where it is needed.

18. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, tell us. A complaint about the practice, its administration, its invoices or the care Dr Borukhson has given can be made by email to complaints@rcl.london or by post to our registered office. We acknowledge a complaint within three working days, answer it in full within 20 working days, and tell you if we need longer and why. Our full answer is in writing. Please raise a complaint within six months of the event, or of your becoming aware of it.

A complaint about care received at an Imperial College Healthcare Private Care facility can also be made under the hospital's complaints procedure, in which Dr Borukhson cooperates fully. Imperial College Healthcare Private Care subscribes to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS), which lists it as Imperial Private Healthcare; if the hospital's procedure does not resolve your complaint, you may ask ISCAS for an independent review within six months of the hospital's final response. The Public Service Ombudsman (until October 2026 the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman), the ombudsman for the NHS in England, cannot by law look into complaints about privately funded care, including care given in a private patient unit of an NHS trust. For a complaint about the practice's own administration or invoices there is no independent scheme; the courts remain open to you. Our own final response to a complaint tells you what further routes are open to you.

A concern about Dr Borukhson's professional conduct may be raised with the General Medical Council. A concern about how we handle your information may be raised with our Data Protection Officer and, at any time, with the Information Commission; our privacy policy gives the details. A dispute with your insurer is for your insurer and, if unresolved, the Financial Ombudsman Service.

A complaint never affects the care you receive, and we do not pursue an invoice that is in dispute while the complaint is open. ISCAS cannot award a refund of fees or compensation, though it may ask the hospital for a goodwill payment; nothing in this section affects your rights under the law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

19. Respect, and ending care

We treat you with courtesy and expect the same towards Dr Borukhson, the practice's staff and the hospital's staff. Violence, abuse and threats are not tolerated. We end a professional relationship only where trust has broken down to the point that good clinical care cannot continue. We never end it because you have complained, or because of the cost of your care. Except where the circumstances are immediate, we tell you first that we are considering it and why, try to put things right, and if we do end it, give the reasons in writing and arrange continuing care and the transfer of your records.

20. Our responsibility to you

Dr Borukhson provides her clinical services with reasonable care and skill, and in line with the GMC's standards; we provide our administration with the same care. No outcome of treatment can be guaranteed. Nothing in these terms limits our liability, or hers, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for failure to provide a service with reasonable care and skill, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit. We are not responsible for the hospital's services, which the hospital provides under its own terms, or for your insurer's decisions. We are not liable for a loss that was not reasonably foreseeable when the appointment was booked.

21. Changes to these terms

The version of these terms in force when your appointment is booked (section 4) applies to that appointment. We may change the terms for future bookings; the date at the top of this page shows when the current version came into force; an earlier version applies to an appointment booked while it was in force, and a copy is sent with every confirmation and is available from us on request. If the law, the GMC's guidance or the hospital's arrangements require a change that would affect an appointment you have already booked, we tell you by email, and you may cancel that appointment without charge before it takes place.

22. The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You may bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales or, if you live in another part of the United Kingdom, in the courts there. Nothing in these terms affects your rights under the law.

23. This website

The information on this website, including the patient guides, is general information about rheumatology and about the practice. It is not medical advice and does not replace a consultation. The content of this website is the copyright of Rheumatology Consultancy Limited. Questions about these terms: info@rcl.london, or +44 (0) 20 8152 3999.

Cancellation form

Complete and send this form only if you wish to cancel a booking under your right to cancel within 14 days (section 9).

To: Rheumatology Consultancy Limited, C/O Sandison Easson & Co, Rex Buildings, Alderley Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 1HY; info@rcl.london

I give notice that I cancel my booking of an appointment with Dr Liubov Borukhson.

• Appointment date and time:
• Date the appointment was booked:
• Your name:
• Your address:
• Your signature (only if this form is sent on paper):
• Date: