To think £60 is alot of money for a GP's signature?

[EachandEveryone]

If id have known id have just taken it into my appointment with me but instead i went the official route. Ten days later the receptionist has called to say its ready and its £60. I wont be bothering to collect.

I was in hospital for five nights it was an emergency and i had to pay a cat sitter to come in. It was only looking at my policy that i realised i could claim it back. Every little helps. Form was straightforward i have my letter and everything. The gp has all my info. Sixty quid! Is this normal?

Im a nurse can i just get a doctor on my ward to sign it they know where ive been?

£60 is a lot, but....you must have known it wouldn't be free and should have taken responsibility for checking their prices.
With gp practises under such strain, I support charges for non health related stuff.
It would also be rude of yOu, having now taken the gps time, to not pay.

The ridiculous arse-covering system that means no-one can do anythign now without "proof" is the cause of this. We can no longer now use our judgement or discretion to make decisions on whether someone is well/sick etc - we have to "proof" and that often means people get "a letter from the doctor" as rock solid proof that cannot be argued with.

"No of course I couldn't work and therefore can sit about all day getting paid for FA - the docter said so!" But all the doctor can do often is write a letter - as he doesn't know either. And he quite often gets threatened if he refuses. At least by charging it discourages some people and compensates him for the work he does have to do - and for which the patient is often making financial gains from

Back in 2007 we had to make an insurance claim when dd had a serious accident just before a holiday.

The surgery was given a carefully completed form with sticky tags at the relevant paras she was confirming and one by the signature. It was £35 (probably for six minutes). The cheque was made payable to the Dr personally. I had no problem with that.

I had a problem with it not being available when they said it would be and my wasted journey. The additional three day wait because the Dr was not in again until the Friday and the refusal on the Friday to attach a first class stamp. "Because it's the NHS you know". I had an 8 year old in a wheelchair, form was confirming the injury.

By all means charge the going private rate but if so, provide an appropriate standard of service. Surely if the cheque is paid directly to the Dr it is not unreasonable for the Dr to attach a first class stamp rather than expect a mother under pressure to get 8 year old plastered from toes to thigh into wheelchair (with a still vulnerable unplated spiral fracture of the tibia) transfer to car, fold and lift child, park up to fifty yards from surgery, etc, etc.

And doctors and practice staff wonder why sometimes patients and carers aren't always eternally grateful.

I thought the approach was disgusting. IMO for £35 for 6 minutes the Dr could have dropped it off on her way home. Or paid a receptionist a fiver to do it. Or provided a 20p stamp with grace.

it's not "just a signature" it's a professional opinion or report. No wonder we GPs feel undervalued.

This. It’s not just a signature. Before signing the report, the GP has to assimilate contents of the request, confirm consent and then read all GP notes, hospital letters and laboratory results contained within the patient record - this is to ensure, as far as possible, that the facts they certify in a report or certificate are correct. This takes time and without doing this the GP cannot “just” sign the report.

The GP is not contracted to do this. It’s private work which the NHS does not pay for. The GP could choose not to do it at all if they wish or as it’s private work, if they wish to undertake it there’s a fee associated with it. Why should they do the work for free? People wouldn’t expect a free service from their lawyer who would probably charge around £500 an hour and compared to this, GP fees for non NHS services are cheap. www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/fees/fee-finder-what-to-charge-your-patients

It's only £10 at my GP. £60 is ridiculous!

But done by the GP and typist in NHS time using NHS resources, so basically it's £60 straight into the GP's pocket for time spent which should have been spent on NHS work.

So if you think the GP should not undertake private work, would you prefer them to refuse to do any private reports and to have them done by a private physician instead for probably multiple times the cost? Because that’s the alternative.

nest My £35 is probably £50 now. 10 x 50 per six minute unit is £600.

Looking at your list of charges even if a £63 report takes 30 mins thats £126 per hour. Lawyers do not get an additional allowance from a government department to support their private practices therefore there is no subsidised rent, utilities or support staff so it can't be compared like for like.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force next Friday 25 May. Under GDPR, individuals can make a subject access request to an organisation to obtain a copy of their personal data. The organisation is no longer allowed to charge a fee unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

I am not sure whether this has been tested but one possibility is to frame the request as a subject access request to the GP's practice. I cannot see why such a request is unfounded or excessive (which is probably aimed at frivolous and vexatious requests in the context of litigation) which would justify the GP charging a fee.

What you are forgetting nest is that whilst the NHS is free at the point of delivery it is indirectly funded by patients and GPs are able to levy fees for some items.

Whilst the service is delivered free it is becoming increasingly difficult to access for those of us are time poor. Just sorting out simple things at my surgery, if you include a couple of calls where you wait 20 mins for an answer, can take two to three frustrating hiurs to resolve. 2/3 hours of my time extrapolates to £500 - the time in my workjng day and then getting the wirk done outside my working day. So, actually a fully private report for £200 executed quickly, and with grace starts looking like a good deal.

I hope you agree that if your staff are taking in cheques payable for GP's at the very least they need to moderate their barking tones and learn to use an occasional please and thank you.

Anywhere £25/65 is normal. It’s private work. And even on a tiny form they still have to check your medical history etc. They take up time!

OP, you said you regret taking the letter in with you at a routine appointment.

You would still have received a bill if you went down this route. A letter would either be in the post or you are reminded next time.

Surely i can take it to the ward i came from though?

I paid £20 for a letter saying I had epilepsy and couldn’t drive so I could get a disabled bus pass. I’d like to think that letter has more than paid for itself now! Thankfully the letters requested from my epilepsy nurse for uni were free

As you are a nurse, I'm amazed that you can't understand the need for a charge, and that for a professional £65 is not a massive charge.

It's disappointing (to put it politely) that you think you can bypass the system and go directly to the ward.

Please stop abusing the system. It's poor form when any patient does this, but downright disgraceful when a nurse does it.

It's only £10 at my GP. £60 is ridiculous!

I agree. Sixty quid! We only charge a fiver where I work. £50 is our top wack for a whole set of records or really long medical report.

Some nasty responses to the op here.

Well here’s another response.
OP-If you want to ask your GP to waste his time filling in a form to cover the cost of a cat sitter then yes you should bloody well pay! A non NHS service that takes time that could be better spent seeing patients, writing referrals, dealing with hospital correspondence, filing blood results, liaising with specialists (I could go on and on)
FFS.

It's probably one of the practices that charges a decent amount for ludicrous non-medical demands in order to try to put people off, so they can actually concentrate on, you know, actual ill people.

Or make a few private bob on the side. Have any GPs made representations to pressure insurers to accept other forms of proof? Like the hospital discharge form?

We suggest this all the time. Frankly I’d rather not fill in any of these forms. It’s a complete waste of my time that would be better spent bathing my kids. So yes, I will charge a lot for doing them- mainly in the hope that patients will shrug their shoulders and think- do I REALLY need this letter or should I just man up a bit!

I'm sorry, were we supposed to man up and just wave goodbye to £4.5k when we had to cancel our annual holiday?

Surely whilst you continue to do it, you/your staff shouldn't mess people about withvduff information? FFS I couldn't have made it any more straightforward and they whinged iver a stamp when my child was in a wheelchair. And receiving private care so the NHS had our taxes and was relieved of providing us with a service for the most part.

We make it very clear what our non-NHS charges are. Our receptionists are very clear what they tell patients, and how long they will have to wait for completion of any private forms. Take it or leave it.

Back to you actually. I'm an accountant and I've been doing GP, consultant and dentists accounts/tax returns for 30+ years. I know EXACTLY how they operate. How many GP tax returns have you seen???

Sounds like YOU are the profiteering greedy one here. Is part of your job description to bitch about your clients on a public forum while happily making your living off doing their tax returns? I hope you're not my husband's accountant!

If it's a private form with a private fee attached though; cheque payable to Dr Bingowings, you do realise though that it turns the tables service wise and if it isn't ready when you've said it will be ready it''s up to the service provider to put themselves out to deliver? Tell me it will take me two hours to chase down and I'll happily go back to the consultant orthopaedic surgeon (he and his staff were so very nice and helpful - he didn't even call me "mum") and pay triple for an efficient and pleasant service.

1. Payment is taken upfront and transferred to the practice business account.
2. In our practice forms will be ready in the realistic time scale given by our receptionists. Often 2 weeks so nobody is unrealistic about what they are expecting.