Contractor Doctors & Allied Health: How to Finance Your Own Gear When You Don’t Own the Clinic
Equipment finance for contractor doctors and allied health professionals – Switchboard Finance
Contractor doctors & allied health: finance your own gear without owning the clinic
You don’t need to buy a whole practice to own high-impact gear. The trick is putting the right items into your own entity, matching repayments to realistic sessions and keeping a buffer for bumps in the roster.
Example: A contractor skin cancer doctor starts with a portable scope and laptop, then steps up to a small imaging unit once their booked sessions are consistently full.
What gear actually makes sense to own as a contractor
When you’re on percentage billings, the best starting point is portable or room-based medical equipment that clearly earns its keep wherever you work.
Instead of a full clinic fitout, most contractors build a focussed equipment finance plan around one or two high-impact items, then layer on more once their list is stable.
| Stage | Typical gear | When it makes sense | Real example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter kit | Scopes, portable devices, assessment tools | Early days in private – building a patient list across one or two sites. | Psych using their own testing tools instead of relying on clinic-owned sets. |
| Room upgrade | Treatment beds, rehab gear, dental or podiatry chairs | When you have guaranteed sessions in a room and want a setup that follows you. | Physio upgrading two treatment rooms across different practices with matching tables. |
| Diagnostic hub | Ultrasound, CBCT, ophthalmic or laser units | When referrals and lists are strong enough that the machine drives most of your income. | Regional sonographer owning a portable ultrasound that rotates through three clinics. |
Example: A contractor dentist starts by owning a portable kit and chair, then adds a small imaging unit once they’ve locked in long-term room leases and steady referrals.
Structuring the finance in your own name
The contract usually sits in your own entity, not the clinic. That keeps ownership and responsibility clear if you ever change sites, hours or billings percentages.
The goal is simple: make repayments affordable on conservative rosters, and keep enough of your savings free for tax, life admin and future opportunities.
Example: A contractor cardiologist finances a reporting workstation and echo cart in their company, while using a separate business facility for rent, admin and staff costs.
Planning for clinic moves & changes in rosters
Because the finance lives with you, not the clinic, it needs to survive roster changes, new contracts and the odd surprise gap in sessions.
Lenders care that the debt still looks sensible if one clinic drops away, so we usually build a small safety margin into income and room-time assumptions.
| Scenario | Risk | How we normally set it up |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor clinic + side sessions | Anchor clinic renegotiates percentage or hours. | Base repayments covered from the anchor clinic alone; extra sites are upside. |
| Multiple rooms across sites | Downtime in travel or gaps between lists. | We model income on fewer sessions than your “ideal” week to keep things conservative. |
| New contractor with long CV | Short track record in private practice. | Smaller first approval, then reviewed once billings and rosters have a full year of history. |
Example: A psychologist moves from one group practice to another and takes their own chair, testing tools and desktop with them – the finance stays in place because it was never tied to the old clinic.
Own your gear, keep your options open
Contractor doctors and allied health providers don’t have to wait until they own a clinic to upgrade kit. A focussed gear plan in your own entity can sit alongside tools like a business line of credit, working capital loan or invoice finance.
Many Whitecoat clients start with one high-impact asset, using the low doc asset finance pathway and the guidance in our Medical Professionals & Asset Finance and Asset Finance for Doctors heroes before they commit to bigger clinic decisions.
Contractor equipment finance FAQs
Quick answers for clinicians who work under contract but still want to own their own gear and stay flexible across multiple sites.
Most lenders prefer your first contractor approval to be a modest starter facility that’s clearly covered by your current billings and room contracts, with room to grow later.
We usually match the term length to the realistic working life of the asset and your current roster; too short can squeeze cash, too long can outlive the gear.
A good contractor setup assumes some bumps in your cashflow, so the facility should still look sensible if one site drops or shifts – that’s where conservative modelling helps.
Not always. Many medical contractor deals simply register security over the equipment itself, especially when the gear is central to your income and the deal size is reasonable.
Contractor deals still sit under responsible lending, but the assessment leans more on your contracts, billings pattern and clinical track record than on owning the premises.
