Clinic consumables are one of the few costs in a treatment room you can put an exact price on, yet almost nobody does. This guide prices a single patient visit line by line (couch roll, gloves, ultrasound gel where used, and the wipe-down afterwards) using live UK trade prices, with the working shown for every figure. It is written for clinic owners, practice managers and NHS procurement leads who want a number they can actually check.
TL;DR
- A standard hands-on treatment uses about 24p of consumables at single-pack prices: 2m of fresh couch roll, a pair of nitrile gloves and the paper for the wipe-down.
- Order at the 5+ volume tiers and that drops to about 21p. Buy couch roll by the pallet and it lands at 20.6p.
- An ultrasound treatment adds 3.3p to 4.2p of gel on top.
- Every line in the cost table shows its working: the assumption, the ex VAT price used and the resulting pence per treatment, with a link to the product behind each number.
- Across 5,000 treatments a year, the gap between single-pack and best-tier prices is about £165. Real money, but not a reason to compromise on paper quality to chase it.
Context and audience
Search for consumables budgeting advice and you mostly find American content telling you supplies should be a set percentage of revenue. That is fine for a business plan and useless at the point of ordering. A percentage does not tell you whether £37 for a pack of couch roll is good value, or what a patient visit actually costs you in paper and gloves.
So this post does the sum the other way round, from the treatment up. Every price is a live ex VAT trade price from our own clinic consumables range, correct at the time of writing. Where a usage figure is an assumption (how many metres of paper per patient, how much gel per scan) we say so plainly, because those are our estimates, not industry averages. Swap in your own numbers and the maths still holds.
How much do clinic consumables cost per patient?
About 21p to 28p per treatment, depending on whether you use ultrasound and how you buy. Here is the full breakdown. Item names link to the exact product used in the maths, and each line is rounded to the nearest 0.1p.
| Consumable | Used per treatment | Single price (ex VAT) | Cost per treatment | Volume-tier price | Cost at tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Couch roll (fresh cover) | 2m of a 40m roll | £2.08 a roll | 10.4p | £1.95 a roll at 5+ packs | 9.8p |
| Nitrile examination gloves | 1 pair, from a box of 100 | £4.16 a box | 8.3p | £3.33 a box at 5+ boxes | 6.7p |
| Couch wipe-down (paper only) | 1m of the same roll | £2.08 a roll | 5.2p | £1.95 a roll at 5+ packs | 4.9p |
| Standard hands-on treatment | 23.9p | 21.4p | |||
| Ultrasound gel (where used) | 10ml of a 1 litre bottle | £4.16 a bottle | 4.2p | £3.33 a bottle at 5+ bottles | 3.3p |
| Treatment with ultrasound | 28.1p | 24.7p |
Two notes on the table. First, all prices are ex VAT; the storefront shows prices including VAT, so the 18-roll pack that appears as £44.89 on site is £37.41 ex VAT. Second, buy couch roll by the pallet and the two paper lines fall to 9.3p and 4.6p, which takes a standard treatment to 20.6p and an ultrasound treatment to 23.9p.
The working, line by line
The fresh cover: a pack of 18 rolls costs £37.41 ex VAT, which is £2.08 a roll. Each roll is 40m long, so a metre of paper costs 5.2p. We assume 2m per patient, enough to cover a standard treatment couch from head to foot, so the fresh cover costs 10.4p. At the 5+ pack tier a roll is £1.95 and the same 2m costs 9.8p.
The gloves: a box of 100 is £4.16 ex VAT and holds 50 pairs, so one pair costs 8.3p. At five boxes or more the price drops to £3.33 a box, or 6.7p a pair.
The wipe-down: we assume a further 1m of couch roll to dry and wipe the plinth between patients, which is 5.2p at single-pack prices and 4.9p at the tier. This line deliberately excludes disinfectant spray or clinical wipes, because we do not sell them and will not guess at someone else's price. Add your own figure from your cleaning supplier. NHS England's national infection prevention and control manual expects shared equipment to be decontaminated between patients, so this line is not optional, only the brand of spray is.
The gel: a 1 litre bottle costs £4.16 ex VAT. We assume 10ml per treatment, which gives 100 treatments a bottle at 4.2p each. At five bottles or more the bottle is £3.33 and the cost falls to 3.3p. If your machine or technique uses more, halve the treatments and double the pence.
How much couch roll does one treatment use?
Our assumption is 3m in total: 2m to cover the couch and 1m for the wipe-down afterwards. A treatment couch is around 2m long, and we have costed a fresh full-length cover for every patient. On a 40m roll that is about 13 treatments per roll, all in.
That figure is an estimate, and it is the one assumption worth testing in your own clinic. The rolls are perforated, so practitioners tear to length rather than to a fixed sheet count, and habits vary. Count the rolls you open in a normal week, divide by your patient numbers, and you will have a usage figure no supplier can argue with. For sizing, materials and what separates a decent roll from a bad one, our couch roll buyer's guide covers the detail.
The roll behind the maths is our 2-ply white 40m x 500mm hygiene roll, individually wrapped and perforated. A pack of 18 is £37.41 ex VAT, £2.08 a roll, dropping to £1.95 a roll when you buy five packs or more.
The pallet is where the paper price bottoms out
If you have the storage, a pallet of 324 rolls is £600 ex VAT, which works out at £1.85 a roll. That is the lowest per-roll price we sell at, 23p a roll under the single-pack price. At 13 treatments a roll, a pallet covers roughly 4,200 patient visits, so for a multi-room clinic it is a once-or-twice-a-year order rather than a monthly one. The tail-lift delivery option adds £15 ex VAT.
The gloves and gel behind the other lines
Nitrile examination gloves
The glove line uses our powder-free nitrile examination gloves, a registered medical device that meets EN 455. Nitrile matters because latex sensitisation is a recognised workplace risk; the HSE's guidance on latex allergy at work is a big part of why many clinics moved away from latex gloves altogether. If you are weighing up glove types and sizes for a whole team, our latex-free examination gloves buyer's guide goes deeper.
A box of 100 is £4.16 ex VAT, or £3.33 a box when you buy five or more. As we publish, small is in stock; check the product page for medium and large availability.
Ultrasound gel
The gel line uses Vue ultrasound gel in 1 litre bottles, latex free and non-sterile, for external use on intact skin. The bottle size suits a clinic with more than one treatment room: keep one bottle in each room rather than carrying a shared one around. Unopened bottles keep for five years, so buying at the five-bottle tier does not risk waste.
A litre is £4.16 ex VAT, or £3.33 a bottle at five or more. At our 10ml assumption that is 4.2p a treatment, or 3.3p at the tier.
What consumables does a physio clinic need?
The per-treatment trio above covers most appointments, but a full clinic consumables shelf runs wider. A working list for a UK physio or sports therapy clinic:
- Couch roll, the highest-volume item on the shelf and the one worth buying at the deepest tier you can store.
- Examination gloves in every size your team wears, because a glove that does not fit gets doubled up or wasted.
- Ultrasound gel if you run electrotherapy, one bottle per treatment room.
- Surface disinfectant and clinical wipes from your cleaning supplier, alongside the paper wipe-down costed above.
- Hand hygiene stock: soap, sanitiser and paper hand towels at the sink.
- Tape and strapping if you treat sporting caseloads, which behaves like a consumable in all but name.
- Resistance bands cut from a roll, if you issue exercise kit for patients to take home.
Bands are their own per-patient cost sum, which we have done separately in our guide to buying exercise bands in bulk. For the shelf as a whole, from strapping to cold therapy, our wholesale physio supplies guide covers what to stock by category and how trade pricing works across a mixed order.
What the tiers are worth over a year
Per 1,000 standard treatments, the consumables in the table cost £239 at single-pack prices, £214 at the 5+ tiers, and £206 with pallet paper. A clinic doing 5,000 treatments a year is looking at £1,195 against £1,030, a saving of about £165 for changing nothing except order quantity.
Worth having, and honestly not life-changing. The more expensive failure mode is running out: a clinic that runs dry on couch roll mid-week ends up paying retail prices at a cash and carry, and the tier maths goes out of the window. Ordering five packs at a time solves both problems at once, since the same order that hits the tier price also builds a proper buffer on the shelf.
FAQs
How much should a clinic budget for clinic consumables per patient?
About 21p to 28p per treatment, based on our costed table: couch roll, a pair of nitrile gloves, the paper wipe-down and, for ultrasound appointments, gel. The range depends on whether you buy at single-pack or volume-tier prices. Add your own figure for surface disinfectant, which the table deliberately excludes.
How many treatments does one couch roll cover?
About 13, on our assumptions. A 40m roll at 2m of fresh cover per patient gives 20 covers, but adding 1m per patient for the wipe-down brings it to roughly 13 treatments per roll. Count your own weekly roll usage against patient numbers to get a figure specific to your clinic.
Are examination gloves single-use?
Yes. Gloves are single-use items to be changed between patients and never washed or reused, in line with NICE guidance on infection prevention in primary and community care. That is why the cost table prices a fresh pair into every treatment rather than treating gloves as an occasional extra.
Do Meglio volume discounts apply automatically?
Yes. Each product page lists its tiers, and the tier price applies once your order reaches the qualifying quantity, five packs for couch roll and five boxes or bottles for gloves and gel. For regular mixed orders across categories, ask about account pricing instead of managing tiers product by product.
What is the cheapest way to buy couch roll?
By the pallet. A pallet of 324 rolls is £600 ex VAT, which is £1.85 a roll against £2.08 in a single pack of 18. You need somewhere dry to store it, and the tail-lift delivery option adds £15 ex VAT if you have no forklift on site.
How long does a litre of ultrasound gel last?
Around 100 treatments at our 10ml-per-treatment assumption, so a five-bottle order covers roughly 500 scans. Unopened bottles have a five-year shelf life, which makes buying at the volume tier safe even for clinics that use ultrasound occasionally.
Conclusion
One patient visit costs about 21p to 28p in consumables, and now you have seen exactly how that number is built: 3m of couch roll, one pair of gloves, 10ml of gel where ultrasound is used, all at live ex VAT prices. Take the table, swap in your own usage figures, and you have a consumables cost per treatment you can defend to anyone who asks.
If you are ordering for a multi-room clinic, a group of sites or an NHS department, tier-by-tier ordering stops being the best route. Tell us what you get through in a month and we will price the whole basket.
This article is intended for qualified healthcare professionals and procurement staff and is general information, not clinical, tax or regulatory advice. Confirm VAT treatment, infection-control and clinical suitability for your own setting.
