to be annoyed at GP practice for charging £20

[Booper13]

I'm 30 weeks pregnant and am taking a flight on Thursday. The airline require a confirmation from GP or midwife that I am medically fit to fly. I phoned GP surgery to ask about this and was told to come in and see GP. I did this and without examining me or doing any BP check or anything GP said he would dictate a letter and I could collect it today. When I went today I was told it would be £20. I was not advised either when I phoned or saw the GP that there would be a charge for this, so was quite surprised. Is this normal practice? Obviously I don't want bad relations with the surgery but I just wondered if this has happened to others.

Why even tell airline you are pregnant? I flew uk to Hong Kong at 7 or 8 months, never even thought to mention it

Wow, I guess every time my consultant has dictated a letter for the many patients who've requested one for their holiday/employer/blue badge/housing etc. etc. I should have been charging them a cheeky fiver... It would take less than 2 mins to dictate such a letter and take me less than 5 to type it up. Hardly worth £20 surcharge!

This is called a "GANFYD" and you get it cheaper than I used to (when I had official paperwork to do, I think it cost me 35 quid).

Anything not immediately related to keeping you healthy is fair game, I think. The NHS is not a free resource when it comes to satisfying other entities' bureaucratic requirements.

A doctor has to look up the notes look up the details required on the form, often dates are needed, decide if the patient fits the criteria, give a professional opinion that could be challenged in court, type it up. Doing all this takes far longer than 2 minutes and is not NHS work. Why should tax payers fund this? It isn't what the NHS is designed for. It isn't one letter it's loads of them as GPs don't just have 1 patient each.
If you want a doctor's note for something non NHS then it's private. If it's too expensive find someone cheaper. if you think the note is an unnecessary expense take it up with whichever organisation wanted the note.
It isn't the GP charging it's the GP not making other tax payers pay for their time so the person wanting a non NHS service pays. GPs time is expensive. People forget this because NHS services are free.

damediazepam lets say I do a quick cheap HGV medical and don't read the notes. The patient tells me that that they are healthy with no past medical history and I take that on face value.

They they have a heart attack at the wheel and kill a a load of people (remember Glasgow last year?) and the investigation looks backs at the old notes and finds undeclared heart disease. I don't think "it would have taken too long and cost too much to read the notes" is going to cut it. Sadly, people lie to get these licences. I get asked on a regular basis to lie to the DVLA or an insurance company on a patient's behalf. I actually think HGV medicals should only be done by someone with the full notes, there is obvious potential for fraud otherwise.

GPs are semi-independent contractors to the NHS.
They were trained at huge cost to the taxpayer.
Most of the older GPs made precisely Zero financial contribution to their own training.
They do not have to provide out of hours cover.
They earn SO much that many of them can afford to cut their hours to part time - and STILL have a handsome standard of living.
That part time working is a major cause of the 'shortage of doctors at the NHS coal face', and of the 'hard pressed' feelings of (presumably other?) NHS staff.
(Ironically therefore, it could be that if the GPs salaries were halved, there would be more GPs working hours available to the NHS?).
The GPs final salary NHS pension arrangements are fairly legendary ....even within the NHS.
Do the GPs refund the NHS for the use of resources used to provide a letter??????
E.g. if a Typist is a full time member of surgery staff funded entirely by the NHS, then would it not be a FRAUDULENT activity for the GP to use her time for 'private earning' purposes for the GP???????
If the GP wants to charge for a non-essential letter (e.g. for a holiday company) then that may be a fair charge if the GP tells the patient in advance that the letter will incur a charge.
For any ESSENTIAL letters (e.g. medical letter for a court) the GP should regard that as an important part of the 'doctor-patient relationship' which the GP is already well paid for via the state funded NHS by the patient's taxes. The GP should NOT charge for essential medical letters.
Also, most patients earn a small fraction of what a GP earns, and many unwell patients may have an impaired earning capability and so may be on only £70 per week benefits.
Therefore, the GP should not assume that all patients are able to pay £25 for a letter.
If that letter takes the GP about 10 minutes,
then he is paying himself at the rate of about £300,000 per annum for that letter...... on top of his already excellent salary.

Hate to post on a zombie thread but Lanchester you clearly have no idea about general practice. I don't know where to start. But I would like to say that I do use my discretion and if I think somebody is struggling I waive my fee for private work.

Zombie thread ......