University medical service wants £50 to complete medical form - local GP says max £25

[Ponders]

I am really cross about this but can't tell if IABU???

DS2 is doing CCUSA this summer & has to complete a full medical form (2 sides of A4). most of it is self-completion, but he has to have vaccination dates confirmed, plus a medical performed by "his physician"

when the university quoted him £50 for this service I got him to send me the form so that I could check with the local HC if their charge would be similar; tbh I thought that if a student was being charged that much by the university, our GP might actually charge more, but no, they said a maximum of £25 & most likely between £17-£20

I am about a university once again apparently viewing students purely as a source of revenue!!!

HC is not keen though on people switching back & forth, & it can take 6-7 weeks for the medical records to be available; but he has to take it with him in June, not post it now, so in theory we could re-register him here at the end of term later this month & leave him registered here until he goes back to uni in Sept.

I really want to complain to somebody about the university charge though!

Comments?

[creamteas]

In every uni I have work at, the medical service is not actually part of the uni. It is usually a local GP surgery that has a base on campus. So the uni will not have a say over this at all.

All GP practices are private business and they can charge what they like for non NHS services. It is extremely unfair, but has always been the case.

[Theas18]

Sorry it's a private service.pay or get your child and the firm to the cheaper provider, just as if you wanted a solicitor to duo work for you.

[Theas18]

Oh and the health centre isn't anything to do with the university so complaining to them won't help.

[Ponders]

\link{http://www.shef.ac.uk/ssid/life/health/uhs\University Health Service}

'The University of Sheffield has a comprehensive University Health Service at a new purpose built NHS General Practice'

[mellen]

Its a private service and the individual GP or the practice will be setting the rate. There may be other practices in Sheffield who would do it for less than the practice at the uni.

[Ponders]

"The University recommends that you register with the University Health Centre.

Other centres or practices may charge for services that are free with the University Health Centre.
The University Health Centre offers a full student service for students of the University of Sheffield.
We believe that we offer the best specialist service for students."

[Ponders]

I don't think it's at all unreasonable/unrealistic to expect that a specialist student Health Service Practice should charge less for this kind of thing than a general Health Service Practice

& this is not the kind of thing where you can shop around locally, since your records are being held at the one specialist student practice!!!

[creamteas]

Students can choose any GP surgery that covers the area they are living in. They are not forced to use this one. Registering is exactly the same as any other GP, and students are not obliged to register with the campus GP practice.

The main difference is that Campus surgeries usually offer is that they will allow students who live off campus (outside the usual practice boundaries) to stay registered, whereas registering with other GP surgeries can often mean different GPs in different years if they are living off campus.

[timidviper]

I would ring the practice manager and ask them to explain the cost quoted and ask them to do it for the lower price.

[unitarian]

This is not about paying for the service but is related if your DC had any vaccinations given in school.

DD had to provide a full vaccination history three years ago. Our GP provided a print out of vaccinations. Everything was listed except the TB vac.
This was done in school and we discovered then that the GP is not notified of this therefore it isn't on her medical records (despite having a scar on her arm).
I eventually tracked down proof through the Occupational Health Service. The records weren't computerised and the paper records were about to be destroyed.

[Ponders]

thank you for that information, unitarian - very useful - I'm sure the TB vac will be one they want to know about!

DS2 will have had it at school I think, I'll ask him if he remembers.

[unitarian]

In DD's case the info was required before she went to university so she was still registered with our family GP.
I was shocked to find that such important information as a TB jab wasn't recorded as a matter of course.
It might be a peculiarity of our county but I didn't get that impression and tracking down proof was sheer luck. I phoned all sorts of NHS departments hitting dead ends every time but eventually found myself speaking to the woman who had been our Health Visitor when DD was a baby and she remembered us. By a happy coincidence she was by then working in the department that happened to still have those paper records.
She told me that DD's year group (born 1991-2) was the last one to have been vaccinated in school.

The Hep B jab was a different matter entirely. DD needed to have begun the vaccination course before she enrolled at medical school but our GP wouldn't do it - 'my practice nurses have been on a course and advise against it.'
The only way was to register DD temporarily at a different practice which would do it - for the princely sum of £80 - but, for your purposes, the temporary registration was easily achieved.

[Ponders]

Oh!

DS2 is 92-93 year group - he definitely remembers having some sort of jab in Y9 but we don't know what His only useless memory is of the big, bossy boy who came over all queer & had to lie down

I will root out the 2007 calendar (I knew my hoarding habits would come in handy one day) & see if I wrote down in that what it was. I know he didn't have MMR booster, as none of mine did - might his Y9 have been Hep-B, not TB? (In which case, will he have had the TB jab at all???)

[Ponders]

well I have found a date but all I wrote was "immunisation", dammit

& it was Y10, surprisingly - March 2008

I will ring the school on Monday & see if they have any records of what was given when

thanks again for your helpful advice

[unitarian]

That'll be the TB jab. Hep B isn't given routinely.

Good luck with the school! (I tried that first.....)
But don't panic yet. It might be only this county that has such weirdly remiss record-keeping on this, in which case I'm sorry to have alarmed you unnecessarily. First see if your GP has a record of it, or the HC where he's currently registered, though he'll have to request that information himself.

[Lilymaid]

Ponders - I've been through all this twice with both DSs who have studied and worked abroad (including summer camp using CCUSA). As far as the "medical" went, our local GP kindly ticked the forms at no charge. They managed to get almost full lists of immunisations from their GPs (again, not sure whether there was any charge) although BCGs were not included. We got there both times ... in the end and I don't recall any significant costs.

DS2 has just stung me for £190 CCUSA fee so he can do summer camp for the third (and final) time.

[Theas18]

unitarian plerase don't give out slightly dodgy info as fact. It'll be BCG only if he has a putted scar on upper arm.

The usual year 10 vacc is the school leavers booster as per this link . This not my PCT we haven't had routine teenage BCG for several years, neither my 17 or 19yr olds have had them (they BCG at risk babies only).

www.coventrypct.nhs.uk/YourHealth/Immunisations/SchoolImmunisation

[Ponders]

only £190, Lilymaid? sounds like a bargain DS2 (ie we) had to pay over £450 initially; though I think/hope that includes his airfare this summer? Then he has to pay c £50 for a CRB check, & I think there'll be a charge for his visa? (Appt in London in April)

it's worth it to have him usefully occupied for a couple of months in the summer (last year he milled around at home for 3 months & did my head in)

he may not have had BCG at all then. I don't know if the US prefer that or not...we lived there for a while in the early 80s, & when I had a medical, I came up as positive for TB & all their alarms went off - it turned out to be because of the BCG I had as a teenager. I got the impression they don't give it there, so it may not be a problem anyway

Anyway I have definitely decided that he should re-register at the local HC at Easter, get his medical forms done locally before he goes to the US in June, & not bother re-registering in Sheffield for his final year - if he should happen to have a medical emergency he can go to a walk-in centre

[mellen]

Theas - Not everyone who has the BCG gets the scar - I have been immunised, and tested immune, but you couldn't tell by looking at my arm.

[Lilymaid]

Ponders, I suspect that DS only needs £190 for now ... he'll probably admit there are further costs later! But he enjoys camp and has made loads of friends from the US and other countries.

[2rebecca]

This medical and filling in the forms are a private service even if the practice itself is NHS. I think your local GP is very cheap charging only £25 for form filling plus medical exam rather than the university being expensive.

[sunnyday123]

I've had the big and also do not have any scar - not even slight discolouring!

[sunnyday123]

Bcg