Whether it’s a large diamond perched upon neatly manicured fingers or a Lamborghini in the drive, money – as the saying goes – talks. But in a post-pandemic world, in which we’ve never been more attuned to our wellbeing, the newest, most exclusive status symbol isn’t an object, it’s access – to the best private doctors, to be exact. While it has long been acknowledged that health equals wealth, if the recent proliferation of money-can-buy medical services is anything to go by, it seems that the equation runs the other way around. Does wealth, in fact, equal health?
Longevity is a growing global obsession, and with it the concept of “health span” – ie, living as long, and as prosperously, as possible. In the US, luxury gym Equinox has introduced a longevity programme that includes blood tests and an Oura ring, plus sessions with personal trainers, sleep coaches and nutritionists for a cool $40,000 per annum. It is joined by Continuum’s $10,000-a-month Manhattan social wellness club, where you can work out, sample hyperbaric oxygen therapy and take Himalayan salt saunas, cocooned from the bustle of city life – a nice life if you can afford it.
In London, the newest operation in town is The Lighthouse, where some of the world’s most in-demand actors bolt for 360-degree wellness in a private, safe space away from lurking paparazzi. Then there is Solice Health (£6,000 a year) and Surrenne in Knightsbridge (starting at £10,000 a year), Bamford’s The Club in the Cotswolds (£15,000 per year for the whole shebang); Lanserhof, with outposts in London and Germany (from around £7,000 for the basic Longevity package); and Chenot Palace in Switzerland (from £4,900) – all destinations where high-net-worth individuals congregate to be treated by the best in their respective fields.
Dr Sabine Donnai, a world authority on proactive health management based at the Viavi clinic in Marylebone, was pushing the longevity perspective before it became a wellness obsession – prices for her services start at £14,000 for a one-off evaluation and health strategy. “We are the Formula 1 car of health MOTs, but fundamentally our aim is to give people a strategy for their health. What is it that they need to do to avoid cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s or autoimmune problems? And then what do they need to do to make the most of their life, slow down ageing and live as well as they can for as long as possible?”
