Your evenings back, and no patient lost to a missed call
Halo Desk runs your practice admin — calls, letters, billing, diary — as a credentialled remote team, for a fraction of a loaded in-house salary. Built and used by a practising surgeon.
Built by a practising surgeon — MA (Oxon), MBBS, FRCOphth
The maths only matters once you trust who is doing the work. Robbie Walker is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon who built Halo Desk for his own clinic, and still uses it.
Compliance handled before we talk money
Patient data stays in the UK. Access is limited to the people doing your work, and logged under UK GDPR. It travels over what Halo Desk describes as “the VPN the NHS uses” — the founder’s account, to be evidenced before launch rather than asserted now. Certifications like DSPT and Cyber Essentials are intended and described as an approach, not yet held.
Between clinics, the admin no one owns just waits
An invoice goes out late, or not at all. A results letter sits unwritten while the next clinic fills up. The diary drifts because no one has time to hold it.
None of it is anyone’s fault. Unstaffed, the back office falls behind by default.
The number, with nothing left out
The salary is the part everyone quotes. It is the smallest part of what an in-house secretary costs.
| In-house secretary, loaded | Generic VA | Halo Desk · Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The salary itself | A low hourly rate | under £25k all in, one figure |
| Employer’s NI and pension | Narrow scope | |
| Software, a phone line, a desk | Not medically trained | |
| Holiday, sickness, cover gaps | No cover when they are away | |
| Time spent hiring and managing | ||
| £38,000–£45,000, all told |
Halo Desk does more of the work than one hire, for well under that figure.
Pricing in the open
Fractional
on enquiry
Cover and overflow. Figure set on enquiry.
Practice
under £25k
all in, per year
The one figure we hold today.
Enterprise
on enquiry
Multi-clinician scale, priced on enquiry.
Bespoke Placement
on enquiry
A named placement, priced on enquiry.
We publish the figure where we hold it, and say “on enquiry” where the rate card is still being set. We do not invent the rest.
All in, where a traditional hire bills extra
| Included with Halo Desk | The current arrangement |
|---|---|
| Secretarial and PA cover | One person, stretched |
| Billing, invoicing and debt chasing | Often a separate cost |
| Phone cover when the line is busy | Calls go to voicemail |
| Live clinical scribe | Not on offer |
| Data entry and reporting | Billed as an add-on |
Everything on the left is in the one figure. The old arrangement meets each line with another bill.
Why a surgeon built his own back office
Robbie needed administration he could trust with patients and their records, at a cost that made sense for a single-handed list. He could not find it, so he built it — used it in his own clinic, then opened it to other consultants.
Put it against your own numbers
Tell us what your admin costs today. A person replies with the comparison — no portal, no account.
No long contract. Figures where we hold them. UK-based team.