The letters wait until 9pm. The phone rings out while you operate.
Halo Desk takes that off your desk. It was built by Robbie Walker, a practising surgeon, for his own clinic before it was offered to anyone else. He knew the problem because he had it.
Robbie Walker — MA (Oxon), MBBS, FRCOphth
I am a consultant ophthalmic surgeon. I built Halo Desk because I could not find administrative support I trusted with patients and their records — not at a cost that made sense for a single-handed practice.
So I assembled it for my own clinic. It worked. Other consultants asked to use it, and now they do. I still run my list; the same desk runs behind it.
Johanna
The named PA who anchors the desk.
Medically trained
Nurses, physios and pharmacists — people who already speak the language of a clinic.
A growing team
Cover is shared, so no single absence stops the work.
Where your patients' records actually live
Your data stays in the UK. Access is limited to the people doing your work. Every entry is logged.
Patient information travels over what Halo Desk describes as “the VPN the NHS uses” — Robbie’s own account of how it is carried, which we will evidence before launch rather than assert today.
The certifications a practice expects, DSPT and Cyber Essentials among them, are the direction we are building toward. We will say we hold them when we hold them, and not before.
The work behind the clinic doesn't stop when the cover does
A patient rings to rebook, and no one calls them back. Someone slips between appointments because the follow-up never happened. The admin that has no real owner waits until your clinic is over, then lands on you.
None of this is bad luck. Left unstaffed, a practice runs this way by default.
More of the practice covered, for less than one in-house hire
One trained person can only cover so much. A shared team covers the whole back office — and costs less than a single secretary loaded onto your payroll.
Included as standard, where a traditional secretary charges extra
| Included with Halo Desk | Typical traditional secretary |
|---|---|
| Full secretarial & PA cover | Core typing / correspondence |
| Billing via Healthcode, invoicing & debt collection | Often out of scope |
| Phone cross-cover so calls are answered | Single line, single person |
| Live clinical scribe (one item among many) | Not offered |
| Data entry & reporting | Charged separately |
Four ways to work with us
Fractional
Cover for overflow and absence, when you need it.
Practice
The everyday partner for a single-handed practice.
Enterprise
For groups and multi-clinician practices.
Bespoke Placement
A named person placed with your practice.
Tell us what your practice needs and we will point you to the right one.
What a practice actually spends
When I costed a secretary for my own list, the salary was the small part.
| In-house secretary, loaded | Generic VA | Halo Desk |
|---|---|---|
| Salary, before anything is added | Low hourly rate | Well under that all in, one monthly figure |
| Employer NI and pension on top | Limited scope | |
| Software, a phone line and a desk | Not medically trained | |
| Sick leave, holiday and cover gaps | No cover when they are off | |
| Recruiting and managing them | ||
| £38,000–£45,000 a year, all told |
Halo Desk covers more of the work, for less than that.
Tell us about your practice
One enquiry, one reply from a person. No portal, no account.