To think GPs shouldn’t charge for these letters?

Your GP is a professional person being asked for a professional written confirmation/opinion.
Of course they will charge for this.

Just carry your repeat prescription request form with you! I’ve never had to declare and medication when flying!

I’ve had to have a GP letter and whilst annoying to have to pay you just have to factor it into the cost of the holiday.

I agree GPs should charge as not part of their day to day job and although people think it is just a couple of lines of letter and shouldn’t cost there’s more behind the scenes than a secretary cutting and pasting.

In my experience hospital consultants also can send these letters. But again they have limited time during their day for admin and this is not a life or death situation.

My opinion is it I pay the £55. When you think it would take 1/2 hour work (checking case notes, typing, printing etc) I don’t think it’s bad. You would pay that happily for a plumber to come out 🤷‍♀️

Well, yes they are really. The GP is contracted to work for the NHS for a set number of hours per week. Anything that is not covered under those contracted NHS hours such as writing letters for something that is nothing to do with the GP practice has to be paid for somehow. If the GP is doing this at the end of the day after fulfilling that days NHS contracted hours then of course they are doing it in their own time and should be able to charge accordingly.
It's no different to you working say 9 to 5 and at 4.58 you are asked to do a task that will take 30 minutes. Thats your own time that you would be using to do that.

It isn't a controlled drug in legal terms but strictly monitored because of its potential dangers.

GP surgery are private for profit business they are not the struggling NHS

Sadly the time for free NHS should be coming to an end. Not sure what costs are involved with the writing a letter but although it seems high once you factor their time as well it seems reasonable

£55 is really not high. In the 90s I was a medical Secretary for GPs and they charged £30 per letter.
It does take time to dictate, type, print and check a letter. A GP will earn around £50 per hour, plus the secretary's salary. Other overheads make the cost much more.
This is for a holiday, not a medical necessity so why should the struggling NHS provide this free.

Which is an entirely separate point. The comparison to solicitors was actually very apt.

GP are a private for profit business, yes they’ll charge for a letter. Same as a Solicitor will charge for a letter.
Its not just a letter.GP need to access your notes, check meds, dose,frequency produce letter and upload it and get copy sent to you In a set timeframe so you have it preflight

SAR to the GP wouldn’t solve your issue either.

As you’ve said, it’s not GP prescribed and the records access would just get you what you’re getting through the app and the letter you’ve already got with the reference to it.

It sounds like a fair reflection of what the cost is to the GP practise to do the letter. It’s not covered by their NHS contract so needs billing separately and it’s less than a private GP appointment would be. Compare the time and qualifications and overheads for the business to a set of gel nails.

The service that sends it to you probably handle the prescriptions, so they should be able to give you something suitable. Or the prescriber (which isn’t your GP).

There’s a common misconception that GPs are there to provide general frontline contact for health services stuff. That’s not the case. They have a contract with the NHS to provide a specific set of services to their patient list. Stuff outside of that they don’t get paid for. Letters about medications provided by others, unsurprisingly, isn’t in their contract arrangements.

But you can get a free letter or copy if you actually go to either your consultant that originally put you on it or the company that you get it delivered from. I dont see what the issue is with that. Your GP has nothing to do with this particular prescription so will of course charge for the time it takes to confirm everything and writing the letter. They can't just take your word for it. Either the GP or their support staff would have to do the legwork to confirm. While they are doing that they are not doing NHS work that they are contracted for. Why do you think that you should not have to pay for a private service? It dosent matter if it is the GP or their admin staff it is still time taken from the NHS contact and needs to be paid for somehow.
Consultants have secretaries that you can phone and request this kind of thing via as well. You should be able to find contact details for your consultant's secretary easily by googling.

Don't be ridiculous, OP. It's not really a GP's job to do these letters, but still they do them - to help their patients. Imagine how many requests they get a week and how much time that takes! Frankly, £55 is a bargain and if you really can't afford that, then you should really be questioning whether you can afford a foreign holiday.

Yep. And I'm happy to pay for a private service but when I do, I expect private service standards. Not, it's not ready, come back later, when I arrive at the time I've been told to come, followed by a refusal to put a stamp on an envelope, when they, not me, have been inefficient.

Disregarding the amount, which may be on the steep side, do you think that all letters required for holidays etc. should be free or a minimal charge of say £5? If so that means that everyone who pays tax and/or national insurance would foot the bill, even if they cannot afford to go on holiday themselves?

It's a perfectly good comparison because the topic under discussion is a private service, not an NHS one.

Don't you have any letters from your consultant detailing your medication? If not, contact the hospital or GP to get a copy.
It's reasonable for the GP to charge for a non NHS service. Why do you think they should work for free?

I started a biologic bi weekly injection this year and I've never had a prescription for it and it's not listed anywhere. I guess the link to the private delivery company skips this step.

My clinic has it's own employed pharmacist who managed the mailbox so if I needed this I would contact her first

I work in a gp surgery and it’s classed as private work
My Dh travels all over the world with work and he has to take an injection with him he takes a copy of his prescription which you can ask your Doctors or Chemist for.He has never been asked to show it when traveling.

Actually, some very much do. And as with the GP contract, there are only certain things it covers. So someone asking their state funded solicitor to do work outside that without paying would either be expecting free work or for the public purse to cough up. Just the same as with a GP.

The point is that the funding is only for certain things and letters for people choosing to go on holidays is not funded, therefore someone must pay for the highly qualified professionals time....

i fly a lot with my injectable medications and always have copy fo prescription for other meds and letter from specialist for injections. Once in a blue moon the airline/airport security DO go through everything and read the letter etc and actually commented last time that I’d need to ask for a new up to date letter as the one I have was written 2 years ago and I did say no one has ever looked at this letter until today and they said they can and do check these at random intervals and if they aren’t satisfied they will refuse to let you fly with them. As they are very expensive as well as important for health then always carry a letter from hospital specialist just in case: they are used to writing these letters out and I’ve never had to pay - go charges yes but never been asked by specialist

So is it issued prescribed by the doctor or the hospital? It sounds like it’s the hospital who prescribes it so you can a letter from them or you can ask the surgery for a copy of the letter sent to the surgery about this medication. You should also be able to see it if you have the NHS app.

Also I work in a surgery and £55 for a letter is very expensive, we charge £25 for a letter.
But like others said NHS work comes first so they can charge anything.

That's expensive. I paid £25 for a letter to carry needles but I've never actually had to show it.

A lawyer or solicitor doesn't receive state funding for providing a service free at the point of delivery so thisi is not a good comparison.