Should GPs charge for letters?

[Lanchester]

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 the typist's 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/she is paying themself at the rate of about £300,000 per annum for that letter...... on top of their already excellent salary.

I get the gist of what you're saying (enough to know it's bollocks) but I'm not going to work through your slightly hysterical essays and answer you point for point. Would you not just be happy with a straw poll and we can all get on with our lives?

YABU

Ok, facts"

GPs are independent contractors.
Letter are not part of the NHS contract and therefore not funded or resourced.
When I sign a form, I sign a legal document - which mean I have a duty to check records etc etc.
GPs provide OOH care 24/7, 365 days/year for emergency care not for pill prescriptions at 3am on Sunday morning.
GPs who don't work in OOH pay rather handsomely to be able to spend time with their families.
My net pay has gone down by about 15% in the last 5 years or so, while my 6 session = 6x5hrs, so called 'part-time' job required about 40-50hrs per week (which included evenings and weekends) to keep up with the workload generated by seeing 40-60 patients per day.

So, do please, get lost inform yourself and don't believe everything you read in the DailyFail.

As long as you believe you're correct OP that's all that matters

I can't wait for your next thread made up of random Daily Mail style facts.

Oh, and only 5 out of 18 training places are filled here for next year.
GPs are retiring/retraining/leaving the country in droves.
Available partnerships cannot be filled.

Enjoy your moan about your GPs because we will soon be gone.

I love my job btw, even though I am told in the press and by the powers that be and by some people like you that I am greedy/lazy/incompetent/at fault for everything in the entire universe.

Oh gawd, I wish I did not get sucked in to these threads

I bid you good night.

My GP wrote me a free letter for my DH's court case. If DH had been banned from driving my health and our then unborn baby's health would have been at risk (needed a c-section, lived in tiny village no way to get to hospital without car). He wrote the letter free as it was to protect my health. Not for DH. For me. (BTW DH never driven over the speed limit since)

He also wrote free a letter to DH's employer re adjustments needed to be made at work to prevent a back problem returning.

These are letter to prevent medical harm. If I needed a letter not for non-medical purposes - to get life insurance/holiday then I would expect to pay. TBH we expected to pay for the other letters too. Think we just have a lovely GP.

If being a GP was so good, wouldn't you expect a queue of junior doctors choosing to train as GPs? Instead there is a recruitment crisis.

YABVU. Of course Gps should charge for additional services that take away from the everyday running of their professional services.
If it so easy to become a Doctor and earn these non existing extortionate amounts of money for part time jobs, it is always surprising to me, why there is such a short fall of medical professionals in the world . Your op makes you sound like you think of the NHS and it's staff as your personal possessions whom should bow to your every demand because your pay taxes. There's no such thing as a free lunch....try getting sick in USA without medical insurance and see how you fare.

Oh gawd, I wish I did not get sucked in to these threads
Me too!! It's so frustrating some times

There was a GP upthread who justified charging to support fraudulent benefit claims. The honest response would be to decline the letter.

Be careful when you climb so high onto your high horse that you can't get down
A GP could moan his taxes not only pay his salary-a portion of which he has to give back in taxes but also your benefits costs and now you want him to write you a letter for free?

Or her

The issue is that if GPs charge for a service that particular service isn't "free" and rather than the patient doing the running, it ought to switch to the practice.

I don't mind paying for insurance letters tbh but I do mind paying for a private referral letter when it is a letter that would have to be written if I didn't have the choice. I do and so often chose an option that frees resources for someone who doesn't.

Recently I didn't have a choice because my daughter has developed a MH issue and CAMHS where I live isn't fit for purpose. The practice was very unhelpful except for one GP who wrote a very helpful letter once I, as a lay person, identified a consultant psychiatrist. She didn't charge for that private referral but the practice hadn't covered itself in glory vis a vis supporting my DD. Two GPs had told me to find counselling off the internet prior to that.

The senior partner of my previous practice was reported as being one of the highest paid GPs in the UK by the DM. I don't have an issue with that, it was a well oiled ship that ran extremely well for the patients. It was a stark contrast to the one before it and the one we are with now.

GPs are well paid but why shouldn't they be? DH and I are well paid because we are professionals and invested our time wisely with study and career building. When others were out partying we were working. But we never discuss our pay or complain about it to our clients and neither would our staff because our services aren't free at the point of delivery and people have choices. We expect them to be pleased rather than grateful.

There's good and bad in all professions but I do wish we could have some more honesty about the NHS because it doesn't seem to be working for anyone as well as it could in its present form and probably does need root and branch reform. We have a home in France and it really does seem better there on the odd occasion we have used it.

And sorry for the essay but up again worried sick about dd who eventually got good care because I paid for it, the NHS declined to help her. After months of cutting the psych has prescribed ADs

OP are you the person who wanted your GP to write you a letter saying your undiagnosed sleep condition, that you're self-medicating from the Internet for, means that you may not have been responsible for lies you told when you didn't turn up for your work placement?

If you're not, you sure do write very like her.

Yabu on too many levels. Theres a reason why there is a massive shortage of gps at the moment. You might want to consider how much you have paid in to the nhs to how much a hip replacement operation etc costs. Also the amount you paid in isnt linked to what you get out. You might have been lucky with your health and not had cancer, need for various operations etc. personally im glad my health has been good. I dont for one moment think the nhs owns me because i didnt use it. My tax money has been used to make other people well and im sure everyone here will support that. yabu!

Did you actually read my post OP I correct a good handful of your wildly inaccurate claims. Tax payers do not pay GP's wages. They are independant contractors who have a contract to provide GMS services. The government set what these services are and what the remuneration is. So if you want on demand letter writing services you need to ask the government to contract that service. Which would be a crap plan as it would take masses of time away from direct clinical care and is not a good use of taxpayers money.
Remember also most GPs are higher rate tax payers who contribute a lot to the general pot.

Dear god, I hope the OP never starts a thread about teachers.

Aye I remember the other thread, you could be right.
Fluffy you're on the money, well said.

If being a GP is as cushy as you claim, why are training programmes not inundated with applications?

Ive had to go to a tribunal and the doctor had to provide notes on my case?
I'm not entirely suee what the op is saying about salaries though.
I think gps do a lot( most) and deserve their salaries.