Do I need a visa medical, a pre-employment medical, or a Health MOT?

You have usually arrived here because a letter, an HR email or a search result has used the word medical, and the booking page then offers visa medicals, occupational screening and a Health MOT as if they were three names for the same Harley Street hour. They are not. A visa medical answers an embassy or a sponsor. Occupational work answers an employer, with a report route the company scoped. A Health MOT is preventative assessment for you. Booking the wrong diary is how people sit at 117a Harley Street with a passport and no embassy form, or with a cholesterol PDF when the consulate wanted a chest X-ray and a signed certificate.

The Health Screening Clinic is a screening clinic that also completes visa medicals, pre-employment medicals from £210, and cruise ship medicals from £350. It does not issue ENG1 seafarer certificates. A land employer's fitness-to-work pack, as distinct from an embassy form, is a pre-employment medical, which the clinic sells itself. This article only separates visa medicals, occupational reporting and a personal Health MOT so you do not blend them.

The letter tells you which diary you need

Read the paper before you pick a slot.

Who issued it, and what they named, is the whole of the choice. An embassy, a visa processing house or an overseas sponsor is asking a different question from an HR team, and a preventative MOT you chose for yourself is a third question again. Those three offices will not file one another's certificates.

If the paper names a destination country, a residence permit, a work visa or an embassy form, you are looking at a visa medical. If it names fitness to work, a company occupational form, or a workforce screening day, you are looking at occupational health. If nobody issued a form and you want a doctor-led look at your own health, you are looking at a Health MOT. A recruiter who says "just get a medical" has not chosen for you. Ask which organisation will receive the certificate, and get that in writing.

If you are unwell, that is a fourth diary. A new cough, fever or chest pain belongs with a GP, NHS 111, or 999 and A&E, not with a planned certificate or a preventative package.

What a visa medical here is

A visa medical is scoped to the embassy form you hold. The live country list currently includes China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Kuwait, the Cayman Islands and Bahrain, at published package fees on that page. If your destination is not listed, email the form for a specific quote rather than guessing a neighbouring country. The clinic will not invent tests a destination does not require, and it will not miss a test the form names.

China is currently listed with physical examination, chest X-ray, resting ECG, blood group and rhesus, and HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B bloods. Saudi Arabia currently lists examination, chest X-ray, urinalysis, HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, liver function, bilharzia antibodies, a monkeypox certificate, and a pregnancy blood test for women as a published extra. South Africa currently lists a general health check, chest X-ray with a radiologist report, and an infection-status screen. Kuwait currently lists examination, vision and hearing, chest X-ray, HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, malaria and filaria screening, urinalysis, and a pregnancy blood test for women. The Cayman Islands currently list examination, chest X-ray, HIV and syphilis bloods, and medical-report completion. Bahrain currently lists examination, chest X-ray, stool microscopy and parasites, HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and urinalysis.

Those are current country facts from the live visa page, not a promise that an embassy will never change a form. Bring the original passport. Email the embassy or sponsor form after you enquire, so the panel can be confirmed before you arrive. Chest X-ray, where required, is done at a partner imaging centre a few minutes' walk from Harley Street. Standard reports are currently described as finalised within a few working days, with expedited release on request. Appointments run Monday to Friday. Same-day and last-minute slots are often available when a deadline is tight.

If the letter is about entering the United Kingdom, read it again. Some UK visa routes require a tuberculosis test at a UKVI-approved clinic in the applicant's own country. That UKVI pathway is a different appointment from a destination-country residency medical completed here.

This clinic does not provide OGUK offshore medicals. The occupational page is explicit that OGUK sits out of scope, along with other statutory surveillance work, so if the paper names those jobs you need a specialist provider rather than a blended MOT.

Occupational reports are for the employer, not for you as a patient

Occupational health is a workforce programme: employer tiers from £210, clinic or onsite from five staff, individual clinical reports to the employee, and consented summaries only to the employer. That reporting rule is the point of the diary. Paying the invoice does not transfer the medical file to HR.

A Health MOT is the opposite reporting job. You book it for yourself, the results belong to you, and the doctor reviews them with you. There is no employer summary unless you later choose to share one. Mixing those two is how a finance team compares £210 with £495 and treats them as the same hour, or how a candidate hands a personal MOT PDF to HR and wonders why it does not complete the company form.

Pre-employment packages also appear on the visa medicals page, because some new starters are sent there with a fitness-to-work request. That is still occupational clearance, not a personal MOT, and not an embassy certificate. If work is paying, read the occupational page and send the form. If you want a preventative Health MOT, book it as yourself.

Essential MOT is £495, 45 minutes. Advanced is £999. Elite is £1,850 for men and £2,095 for women. Ultimate is £2,950, or £3,350 with gynaecology, with 3T MRI of brain, MRA, whole spine and torso. Those prices are not visa fees and not employer-tier fees. A visa chest X-ray will not become an Ultimate MRI because you asked nicely on the day.

Two papers still mean two bookings

Some people hold two papers. An employee being posted to the Gulf may hold a land occupational form and an embassy pack. Those are still two bookings, because completing one does not file the other, and a personal MOT does not file either of them.

Cruise ship medicals (PEME) are sold on the visa medicals page from £350, quoted from the cruise line's form. This clinic does not issue ENG1 certificates, and this article will not triage seafarer packs or cruise-line forms. If that is the letter in your hand, say so when you contact the clinic, and expect the form to be quoted rather than converted from a Health MOT.

The FAQ already separates visa questions from MOT questions. Read the heading that matches the paper you hold. Then book that diary, not a blend.

Tips and tricks

• Bring the letter, the email or the PDF, not a memory of the word medical.
• Who issued it, and whether the heading says visa, fitness to work, or nothing because you chose the visit yourself, is enough to put you in the right diary.
• For a visa medical, bring the original passport and email the embassy form so the listed destination, or a destination not on the list, can be scoped.
• Put the visa deadline in that message.
• Do not use a colleague's country as a template.
• For occupational work, send the employer form and say who should receive the consented summary.
• For a Health MOT, say it is preventative for you, and choose Essential, Advanced, Elite or Ultimate by the clinical question, not by an embassy checklist.
• Appointments run Monday to Friday at 117a Harley Street.
• Book a slot for a visa medical and send the form in advance so it can be checked.

Things to avoid

• Do not book from the word medical.
• Do not blend a visa certificate, an employer report and a Health MOT in one visit, and do not expect reception to convert one into another while you wait.
• UK visa TB tests are taken at UKVI-approved clinics in the applicant's own country. This clinic is not one of those clinics.
• OGUK medicals are not done here.
• Do not arrive for a visa medical without the original passport, or leave the embassy form at home, and do not use these bookings as a GP appointment for a new illness.
• If the paper in your hand is a destination-country visa medical, select that pathway, not a Health MOT.
• Details sit on the visa medicals page, or you can call 020 7183 7056.
• Email the embassy form, and bring the original passport.
• If you wanted a Health MOT instead, book that diary on its own page.

If your employer booked you in, read what employees actually receive from a workplace health screen. For a personal check, see what a full body MOT includes.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a visa medical, a pre-employment medical, or a Health MOT?

A visa medical if an embassy or sponsor issued a destination form. Occupational or pre-employment work if a land employer wants fitness to work. A Health MOT if you want preventative assessment for yourself. They are three diaries.

Which countries are on the live visa list?

China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Kuwait, the Cayman Islands and Bahrain, at the fees published on the visa page. If your country is not listed, email the form for a quote.

Is a Health MOT accepted as a visa certificate?

No. An embassy files the examination it asked for. A preventative MOT will not substitute.

What does the employer receive if work is paying?

On occupational programmes, only consented summaries. Individual clinical reports go to the employee. A personal MOT is not that reporting job.

Do you do OGUK medicals?

No. OGUK offshore medicals are out of scope on the occupational page.

I also need a seafarer PEME. Is this the shop?

The clinic sells cruise ship medicals from £350, quoted from the cruise line's form you send. It does not issue ENG1 certificates. Send the form rather than booking a MOT and hoping.

What should I bring to a visa medical?

The original passport and the embassy or sponsor form. Identity on the certificate has to match the document the embassy will see.

Sources

• UK Home Office. Tuberculosis tests for visa applicants
• NHS. NHS 111
• Health Screening Clinic. Occupational health
• Health Screening Clinic. Health MOTs
• Health Screening Clinic. Visa medicals
• General Medical Council. Medical register, Penelope Sheehan, 6056535
• Care Quality Commission. Find a service

Written By

Stephen Lingam

Managing Director

Managing Director of Medical Express Clinic and the Health Screening Clinic since 1984. Over 40 years of operational experience in private healthcare on Harley Street, overseeing patient care, clinical standards, and service delivery.

Medically Reviewed

Dr Penny Sheehan

MBBS, MRCGP

General Practitioner

GMC: 6056535

Specialising in women's health, hormonal balance, and menopause management within screening contexts.

Last reviewed: 25/09/2026