Everyone Active has launched a new service offering access to medical appointments with qualified doctors via its membership option, Everyone Wellness, which gives them tools to support their overall health.

Through a partnership with clinical experts, HealthHero, members can now get a phone or video consultation with a practising GP who can offer advice and prescribe, seven days a week between 8am and 10pm.

The service is priced from £29.99 a month and the operator saw more than 2,000 Everyone Wellness memberships sold in its first weekend.

Everyone Active’s, regional director, Duncan Jefford, says: “Our new Everyone Wellness membership is another significant step towards providing customers with a 360-degree health and wellness offering.

"With more than 230 facilities in the Everyone Active portfolio, this is an exciting opportunity to help make a significant difference and contribute to the health of local communities across the country.”

HealthHero already delivers five million consultations annually and provides services to more than 30 million 'covered lives'. CEO for UK&I, Aseem Sadana, says: “This partnership brings to life our company values of simplifying healthcare and improving lives by providing Everyone Active members with convenient access to experienced, practising GPs.

"It's great to see Everyone Active leading the charge on this in the health club sector, by taking a whole-health approach to the wellbeing of their members.”

Writing on LinkedIn, Jefford flagged up the origin of the idea for Everyone Wellness, saying: "A huge shout out to Cheryl Hersey [Action Group] for identifying the opportunity and Sanjay Chada for helping us take it to market."

With increasing pressure on healthcare systems around the world and consumers struggling to get access to primary care, health and fitness operators are moving to serve up health interventions for members.

Last month, US operator Life Time launched Miora, a medical wellness brand, while Xpotential Fitness recently acquired metabolic health brand Lindora and UK high street retailer, John Lewis launched health and exercise interventions. Other operators are known to be preparing launches.

The original innovator in this space was Sheffield-based SIV, which collaborated with Westfield Health in 2018 to launch a new integrated health and exercise membership focused on mental health with GP support.

It's not clear whether the growth of these services is siphoning off healthcare professionals from the market, thereby creating greater demand, or whether we are entering a new era where prevention is more valued by consumers.

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