Why Harbour Street exists

Priya Raman was a partner at an NHS practice in Saltmouth for twelve years. She liked the medicine and hated the mornings: two hundred calls at 8am for twenty slots, receptionists asking people to describe their symptoms to earn a call-back, and patients coming in three weeks later with a problem that had been simple on day one.

In 2021 she took the lease on the old harbourmaster's office on Harbour Street with Ellie Marchant, who had managed three NHS practices and had one idea: publish the diary. Every slot, every doctor, every price, on a board you can see from the street and on your phone. If it says 10:45, you are seen at 10:45.

Harbour Street is not an alternative to the NHS; it is the part of it that should not take three weeks. Every doctor here still works NHS sessions. Your notes go to your NHS GP with your consent. We say when something is free on the NHS and you have time to wait for it. We do not do hospitals, and we send you to A&E when that is the right answer.

The building has grown to eight rooms, a lab, a screening suite and a travel clinic, but the idea on the door has not changed: seen today.