Best Clinic Fit-Out Companies in London: How to Choose One That Gets You Open and Registered
The best clinic fit-out company is the one that designs your premises around what CQC will check before it registers you, builds to infection-control and healthcare design benchmarks, and hands over a clinic you can open on the day your lease and staffing plan assume. Good-looking treatment rooms are the easy part; getting registered, compliant and trading on time is the hard part.
This guide compares the types of company that fit out clinics in London, the seven criteria that separate them, and where Craftex fits. For the regulatory detail, read our guide to clinic fit-out CQC requirements first.
The 7 criteria that matter for a clinic
1. It designs for registration, not just for looks
CQC registration depends on the regulated activities you carry out, and the provider must show the premises meet Regulation 15 (premises and equipment) before registration. CQC doesn't publish a fixed specification for clinic rooms; it expects premises to follow national best practice, and the NHS Health Building Notes (HBN) and Health Technical Memoranda (HTM) are the usual benchmarks. Ask the fit-out company which of those documents it designs to for your type of clinic.
2. Infection control is built into the finishes
Wipe-clean, sealed surfaces; coved flooring; clinical hand-wash basins; sensible separation of clean and dirty flows. These decisions are made at design stage and are expensive to change later.
3. Ventilation and services suit the treatments
Treatment rooms, decontamination rooms, laser rooms and procedure rooms each have different ventilation, power and water needs. A general fit-out contractor may not know them; a healthcare-experienced one should ask about your treatment list before drawing.
4. Accessibility and patient flow
Step-free access, accessible WCs, waiting areas that work for anxious or unwell people, and privacy at reception. These shape the layout from the start.
5. The licences and consents around the fit-out
Landlord's licence for alterations, building control, and in London some treatments need a borough licence as well as, or instead of, CQC registration. Ask who manages these and when. Our guide to licences for alterations covers the landlord side.
6. A programme tied to your opening date
Rent, staff and marketing usually start before the first patient. The fit-out company should build its programme backwards from your opening and registration dates, with long-lead equipment and finishes ordered early.
7. Aftercare
Clinics run hard. Ask what aftercare period is included and how quickly defects are dealt with once you're seeing patients.
Clinic fit-out company types compared
| Specialist healthcare / dental fit-out firm | Equipment supplier's fit-out package | Interior designer plus a builder | General commercial fit-out contractor | Design and build with healthcare experience (Craftex) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | In-house, healthcare-led | Standard layouts around the equipment | Strong on look and brand | Usually builds to your design | In-house design, from layout to finishes |
| Healthcare benchmarks | Core strength | For the equipment rooms | Depends on the designer | Varies | Built into the specification |
| Build | In-house or subcontracted | Subcontracted | Tendered separately | In-house or subcontracted | In-house construction team, around 70% of labour our own |
| One point of accountability | Yes | For the equipment | No: designer and builder are separate | For the build only | Yes, from design to handover |
| Best for | Dental and specialist clinical premises | Single-discipline clinics where equipment drives the layout | Aesthetic and wellness clinics where brand comes first | Clinics with a finished, compliant design | Multi-floor or design-led clinics needing compliance and finish quality together |
| Watch for | Design flexibility outside clinical rooms | Fit-out quality outside the surgery | Gaps between design intent and compliance | Healthcare detail | Check our projects match your clinic type |
What our clinic and healthcare work shows
- Macmillan Cancer Care Centre. A 2,100 m² healthcare interior in London, delivered over seven months. The brief asked for spaces that feel calm and human for patients, built with hygienic, wipe-clean surfaces, accessible circulation and finishes that stand up to infection-control cleaning. We managed every trade directly, with dust, noise and access controls to protect the people around the works.
- Medusa Spa & Beauty, Knightsbridge. A turnkey design and build fit-out across four floors (180 m²) in 17 weeks. The client came to us at RIBA Stage 2 with a concept; our in-house team completed the design, stripped out all four floors and fitted new partitions, ceilings, electrics, fire and intruder alarms, CCTV, air conditioning and ventilation. Designing and pricing together let us bring the concept into the client's budget.
- Beaumont House, Kensington. Not a clinic, but proof of programme: a £350K, 750 m² office refurbishment delivered in three weeks, with more than 150 staff relocated and zero snags.
The team
- Joe Crawford, Operations Director: 37 years in construction, on projects of up to £135M in previous roles, including the Dior flagship on Bond Street.
- Martin Hickey, Preconstruction Director: more than 50 years in construction.
- Konstantin Jegorovs, Projects Director: 16 years, Oxford Brookes construction management graduate.
- Rafael Porzycki, Head of Design & Planning: 15 years.
- Sviatoslav (Sviat) Jerdetchii, CEO and Founder, mechanical engineering background.
Craftex has traded since 2016, holds ISO and CHAS accreditation and carries £10M public liability and £10M employer's liability insurance.
Where Craftex is not the right fit
- Projects under £100,000. A single treatment room refresh or a redecoration is better handled by a local fit-out firm. Our construction work starts at £100,000.
- A dental surgery where the equipment supplier's package covers everything you need. If you want one contract for chairs, equipment and a standard surgery layout, the supplier route is simpler.
- You need a CQC registration consultant. We design and build premises to support your registration; the application itself is yours or your compliance adviser's.
How to choose in five steps
- List your regulated activities and treatments, and check what registration and licences they need.
- Shortlist two or three companies of different types from the table.
- Ask each which healthcare guidance it will design to for your rooms, and to show a similar project.
- Get a programme built backwards from your opening date, with long-lead items named.
- Compare scope and exclusions, not just the headline price.
See our clinic fit-out and refurbishment service for how we deliver clinics in London.
