Private research brief — Dr Gemma Lewis
Nine researched routes to sessional income for a GMC-registered GP and menopause specialist — no premises, no CQC registration, no continuity burden. Every rate below is marked either advertised (seen on a live page) or estimated (triangulated). Nothing is invented.
Everything else on this page can wait. These two cannot.
One day a week (Fridays) teaching MBChB students on campus, fixed-term to September 2029. Created because GP practices can no longer host enough student placements. Zero patients, zero continuity, zero admin tail. Paid on the clinical academic scale — £71,694–£113,761 full-time, so roughly £14,300–£22,750 a year at 0.2 FTE. Requirements are MBChB, MRCGP and GMC registration; as a GP trainer since 2020 she is the exact person spec, arguably over-qualified.
Do this: University of Birmingham jobs portal, vacancy ref 98594. It is a CV and supporting statement — an hour's work for a five-figure recurring Friday. Listing detail
From last week's AI research and re-verified live: fully remote, explicitly United Kingdom only, medical degree required, $40–$120/hour on contract. Training and evaluating medical AI — grading model answers, writing gold-standard clinical responses. Work when she wants, no minimum.
Do this: Apply direct — and register with Mercor the same evening ($110–$250/hr advertised for physicians, UK contractor policy confirmed).
One day a month at one venue is a hobby. One day a month at five venues is a practice — with continuity built in and nothing owned.
The trap in private clinical work is that continuity normally arrives bundled with everything expensive: premises, a CQC registration, staff, indemnity, a phone that rings, an inbox that fills. That bundle is what closed the last chapter.
The way out is to separate the two. Continuity is a property of the diary, not the building. A recurring monthly slot at five different hosts gives a patient population that returns, a reputation that compounds, and a predictable income — while each host carries their own premises, reception, registration and marketing.
This is not theoretical. Two GP menopause specialists already run exactly this model at Spire Nottingham under practising privileges — and one of them, Dr Joanne Hobson, is also clinical lead of an 11-site private menopause chain that staffs its clinics with visiting sessional specialists. One conversation opens both doors.
The single most useful fact found in this whole sweep: practising privileges are a defined exemption from registering with CQC yourself. Working inside a private hospital's registration, the hospital's compliance covers the clinic. No registration, no inspection, no annual fee — the exact burden that needs never to return.
Tick what appeals. The maths updates — money earned against days given up, because her time is the scarce input, not the opportunities.
Ranges are deliberately wide because several depend on a diary filling. Anything marked estimated below should be treated as a hypothesis to test in a phone call, not a number to bank.
Ranked by how quickly they turn into money. Tap any stream to open it.
In order. The first fortnight is deliberately small — two applications and three registrations, none of which needs a decision about the future.
Closes Monday. An hour of writing for £14–23k a year of Fridays. If nothing else on this page happens, do this one.
M3 Global Research and Sermo (paid medical market research — genuinely pays within weeks, entirely remote, no relationship-building) and Mercor for AI work. Zero commitment, and they screen her in on menopause specifically.
Deadline-bound, UK-only, $40–120/hr, no minimum hours.
The two live specialist menopause vacancies found. Newson is part-time permanent under their CQC registration — and the brand on her CV raises her rate everywhere else afterwards. Harper is 2–4 sessions a week and the advert literally lists HRT, testosterone and weight-loss injections: her exact service mix.
The highest-leverage conversation on this page. She runs a menopause clinic at Spire Nottingham under practising privileges and leads an 11-site private menopause chain that staffs clinics with visiting specialists. One call tests both the "recurring day at a venue" model and a warm referral into Spire's privileges process.
Ring the Primary Healthcare Relationship Managers (Spire Nottingham, 0115 937 7730). This is an always-open route rather than a vacancy. Allow two to three months for credentialing and list-build — which is exactly why it starts now.
Timing will not be this good again this decade. Veoza is rolling out privately and Bayer's Lynkuet got its first approval worldwide in the UK — so UK advisory boards are being convened now, and she is about to be one of very few UK GPs with real private prescribing experience of both. No application form exists: ask the MSL or rep directly when ordering.
CQC Specialist Advisor (£300/session — her Clinical Director background matches the independent-healthcare list), NHS England Midlands GP appraiser (£584 per appraisal), GMC PLAB examiner (£310/day). All recruit in rounds, so the move is to register interest and wait.
JCB is real and local and preferred a GP background — but it needs the Diploma in Occupational Medicine, which JCB offered to support. £3,395 and some months. Worth it only if she wants OH as a genuine second career, because it unlocks an £80–135k pro-rata market. If not, skip the whole stream.
Fifteen minutes from home, and there is a working precedent at Hensol Castle: a consultant-led two-night clinical menopause retreat at £2,800 a guest, fifteen guests. The venue does hospitality and marketing; she supplies the clinical headline. Months of lead time, so pitch it now and let it cook.
What the research found that argues against parts of this.
Not the number of opportunities — there are 68. Every pound here costs a clinical session she does not currently have spare. The portfolio only works if something else comes off the plate first.
Livi, HealthHero, London Doctors Clinic pay £80–110/hr and give no premium at all for menopause expertise. That is the commodity floor, useful only as filler or as proof her specialist rate should sit well above it.
Included deliberately. Blue-chip corporates — NatWest, Aviva, Santander, Clifford Chance — buy menopause support at scale, but the delivery market is mostly nurse- and coach-led. That is the gap a GMC-registered specialist sells into, not competes with on price.
Spire privileges, the Menopause Consortium, Hoar Cross, pharma advisory and corporate work all require someone to make an approach. None has an application form. That is Ade's work, not Gemma's.
Nearly every provider role floors at the Diploma in Occupational Medicine. The two doors that open without it are in-house employers who fund it (JCB said exactly that) and provider mentor schemes. Otherwise it is £3,395 and several months before the £80–135k market is reachable.
DWP functional assessment work (Maximus, £72k FTE) is the most certain money found and carries real baggage for a patient-facing doctor. And every pharma payment is published by name on Disclosure UK — fine, but she should expect it to be visible.