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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think GPs should provide letters

38 replies

MoaningSickness · 17/12/2018 12:59

Basically, lots of work places/services/insurance etc seem to be under the impression that GPs provide letters confirming medical conditions, and insist that you have to have them before they believe you.

But my GP at least will never write such a letter. I had this issue two years ago (hospital consultant eventually wrote me a letter) need one now to prove to an overseas company that I am pregnant, but the response from GPs secretary "well we can't because you'd have to pay..." Me: "No problem". Them: "well actually no we don't do that... try the midwife...."

Except the midwife is not a Doctor and a letter from them won't be accepted.

I realise the NHS is overstretched and don't really need this kind of paperwork, but we can't really change the way the whole world works in requiring medical letters, and it's ridiculous that I can't pay the Dr to look at my medical record (heavily pregnant, recent ultrasounds etc) and go 'yep, pregnant'.

OP posts:
Schuyler · 17/12/2018 13:09

I’ve never had a problem getting a letter, maybe it’s just your surgery?

bluefolder · 17/12/2018 13:12

Do you read the newspapers? Do you have any idea how much pressure NHS general practice is under? We do these letters, for a fee of course as they aren't an NHS service, but some practices are so under doctored that they just don't have the time to do stuff that takes them away from seeing patients.

What we don't do is letters that say "moaningsickness is fit to fly/drive/parachute jump etc" because we aren't insured for it. GPs should never sign anyone fit to do anything unless they have special training and indemnity in this area.

FaithFrank · 17/12/2018 13:19

YABU it's not an NHS service, they are not required to provide it.

If you are able to pay, then see a private GP for the letter.

PositivelyPERF · 17/12/2018 13:20

Fuck I’d hate to be a GP.

Notmyideamovingon · 17/12/2018 13:22

My gp will do it if I provide her the wording she just has to check and sign. Yes they are that busy. I don't get charged.

bluefolder · 17/12/2018 13:43

I don't get charged.

I'm glad that your GP is so underworked that she's happy to take time away from her NHS patients to provide a private service for free.

Puggles123 · 17/12/2018 13:50

It’s probably more of an issue that work places shouldn’t expect them, or accept something like the appointment reminder cards. We can book online at our surgery and work usually accept this.

Original poster
MoaningSickness · 17/12/2018 13:50

Do you read the newspapers?

Yes, that's why I specifically mentioned NHS under pressure in my OP.

But I can't write to this non-uk company and say 'sorry you'll have to take my word for it because the health service in my country is so f-ed by government underspending that a standard drs letter that you can get anywhere else in the world is beyond them'.

GPs should never sign anyone fit to do anything unless they have special training and indemnity

I have never asked a GP for a letter like that. Just literally 'moaning sickness has X condition', when they have diagnosed and are treating me for X condition.

If you are able to pay, then see a private GP for the letter.

If I can pay a private GP for a letter for this I will happily do so and withdraw my aibu, I had no idea that was possible.

My gp will do it if I provide her the wording she just has to check and sign.

I would happily do this, and pay, it's just the wall of shrugs and 'no, you can't have that' that is frustrating.

OP posts:
SinisterClownWatchingYou · 17/12/2018 13:52

Not NHS work. Pay a private GP.

AmIRightOrAMeringue · 17/12/2018 13:55

Would the accept the form from your midwife (mat B or something) - the one you give to your employer in the UK. If you explain that is what employers in the UK accept. Otherwise a copy of your maternity notes, it has your name and address and due date and also been signed by midwives (I know this isn't the same as a letter).

bluefolder · 17/12/2018 14:00

The hospital will have written to the GP with info from your antenatal clinic so you could provide that, or you could take your antenatal notes to a private GP and they will do it.

thenightsky · 17/12/2018 14:01

Where I work the doctors don't have enough time to write all these letters, especially now they have 100s of requests for letters of support for PIP appeals too. They are usually happy to provide you with a copy of your last outpatient letter or discharge summary though. Perhaps that would work for you OP?

Biologifemini · 17/12/2018 14:04

Pay a private GP
This is why GPs are overworked

minisoksmakehardwork · 17/12/2018 14:12

I think there are some conditions that employers should take the employees word for it. Pregnancy being one of them. At the appropriate point in pregnancy you get a mat 1b form by your mw to give to your employer for maternity pay and dates. Otherwise sight of the front cover of maternity notes should be sufficient. If you've have excessive sick leave because of pregnancy they can ask you to start leave from something like 29 weeks if I remember rightly.

I did have a dick of a manager in my last pregnancy and in the end my dr got so pissed off with the effect it was having on me, they asked me to write a letter to the effect of telling him to back off and they would sign it. The union helped me write it, dr signed it and manager went away with a flea in his ear. It was the one and only time I've known something like this go happen and the manager really was being an idiot.

Although I think I'd be sorely tempted to ask if they wanted a urine sample.

2isur2isubicurtis4me · 17/12/2018 14:19

My husband had this when he worked in the UK for an American company. I work in Occupational health and wrote him a letter pointing out the issues why his GP wouldn't just be doing a drugs and alcohol test, HIV and Bep C testing and handing over his medical records. I suggested they pay a Occupational Health company to get the d and A plus blood testing done and write a suitability report for fitness to work following. They were happy to do this laugh was they asked me to do it 😂 I politely declined and gave them a couple of companies I didn't work for, for them to chose from.
So get them to refer you to OH and they can write the report for you. I would love a. I've simple one like this.

Bunnybaubles · 17/12/2018 14:27

My GP doesn't do letters but you are allowed a print off of your history, it lists diagnosed conditions and medicine/ treatment history for however far back you want.
Or if you saw a consultant, they send your GP letters of the diagnosis, you have the right to ask for a copy of those letters too. Just the GP won't specifically write one.

Original poster
MoaningSickness · 17/12/2018 14:27

It’s probably more of an issue that work places shouldn’t expect them

I agree that this is absolutely the case for UK companies. They have no excuse for not knowing the strain the NHS is under. Of course the worst offender is government departments - dwp etc. It's appalling.

But you can't expect non-uk companies to change how they work when they get drs letters from tons of other countries without issue.

Would the accept the form from your midwife

No, I tried this first off! They won't accept anything from a midwife. Ironically, because what midwives do varies from country to country but a drs letter is standard.

Pay a private GP

I am looking into this now, thanks to the first person on the thread that mentioned it. I was under the impression that it had to be the Dr I was seeing who provided the note, but if I can get a private Dr to do so I am more than willing.

OP posts:
BeekyChitch · 17/12/2018 14:27

Bluefolder do you read the OP where it is stated that they know the NHS is over stretched? Unreal. It seems to differ from
practice to practice I think NHS need to make it clear whether they do it or they don’t. Mine will provide one no problem with no charge yet it’s strange others have to pay. I’m in Scotland so maybe that’s why.

HelenaDove · 17/12/2018 14:33

wonder how someone on minimum wage would afford a private GP.

Workplaces arent the only offenders either. Schools are causing their fair share of stress in this area.

CrohnicallyEarly · 17/12/2018 14:35

I get copies of all my consultant letters sent to me as well as the GP, so if I need a letter confirming I have x condition any one of the umpteen letters I have with the condition in bold and underlined across the top will do. I thought all trusts did that, it would make life a lot easier for GPs (as well as reducing the chance if me needing a gp letter, it means I have a record of everything discussed with my consultants and I'm less likely to need a gp appointment to discuss one of my long term conditions)

bluefolder · 17/12/2018 14:43

Bluefolder do you read the OP where it is stated that they know the NHS is over stretched?

she says that she knows it, but says that all GPs should provide letters. So she doesn't really understand what is going on in GP at the moment.

You do all realise that the UK is about 1000 GPs down from the point where Jeremy Hunt said he was going to find another 5000 of us? And that 50% of doctors aren't progressing to further training after their first two years? And that the NHS is an increasingly impossible place to work and retain your sanity?

HelenaDove · 17/12/2018 14:45

the workplaces and the schools who expect this are the ones who should pay the cost of a private GP for it.

gingerrubber · 17/12/2018 14:49

i work in the nhs, i provide letters for my patients free of charge to fly or supporting when applying for various stuff. i am in mental health tho and see it as part of my role in helping get the persons life back on track.

maddening · 17/12/2018 15:01

But is the document you need not a mat1b - this is the official document?

Dariosa · 17/12/2018 15:21

I’m a GP, and to be honest I now refuse to write letters in the majority of cases.

In the past, when I did write letters and leave them at reception to be collected, I would more often that not later have the person knocking on my office door to say that the letter wasn’t good enough, and didn’t make clear enough their reasons for not being able to appear in court as a witness or whatever.

More than once I was told the letter I’d spent twenty minutes of my own time on (familiarising myself with the complex medical history of a patient I’d never met) ‘wasn’t convincing enough’.