To think GPs should provide letters

[MoaningSickness]

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'.

In this fantasy world where GPs did all the letters, who would you have going the actual work a GP is supposed to do?! You don’t need a GP to diagnose or confirm pregnancy. Send the overseas company a photo of your bump!

I'm a GP medical secretary. The doctors have no problem writing private letters but we do usually charge and don't do them instantly.

I had emergency surgery a while back and due to the hospitalisation and recovery etc, I couldn't do the training course my employer had arranged and paid for. Training company said I could only have an extension to the course with a doctors note - they would not accept copies of my medical notes, discharge paperwork from surgery, etc. wouldn't pay the fee for the doctor to write a letter. My employer had already paid for the course and for my sick pay for the illness and they didn't see why they should have to pay for a letter just for the supplier's bloody-mindedness. I couldn't afford the fee for the letter and by that point was still recovering from a major operation and just couldn't be bothered to argue any more. So the money was wasted and the company has lost our business for good.

I'm not sure that it's fair to say doctors should have to provide a letter, but something needs to be done about companies using it as an excuse to be awkward when it's not something easily accessible to every patient.

Slightly off topic but how do you get a private GP?

Google 'private GP (your area)'

Agree totally Beantownnancy. I personally think GPs should provide a free printed one or two page summary of medical records on request for any patient at any time, but they should charge far, far more than they currently do for letters (about £300), and it should be across the board with a standard price list for every surgery, which the organisation who really is requesting the letter (usually insurance companies) has to pay for. The GP surgery I used to work for over a decade ago would do a basic letter for about £10. That in no way represents the work involved even in doing a very simple one - it was more of a recognition that this was a private service, plus the cost of photocopying. I hope they no longer do this.

The DWP should pay for the evidence they require before agreeing that you may have some case for benefits - they get round this by saying that you don't need to provide medical evidence, except that without medical evidence you almost certainly won't get a benefit based on a functional ability.

I also agree that patients' copies of letters should be absolutely standard from all hospital visits - to be fair this is increasingly the case - and we could do with a few lawsuits to get some caselaw to show that these are adequate evidence. Which obviously they are.

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.

I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the NHS is well funded (quite the opposite, and I've been voting and arguing for more money to go the the NHS my whole life). I'm saying that providing a simple statement of a persons diagnosis SHOULD be part of a doctors remit (it is in most of the world - and in many cases the only 'point' to a diagnosis is being able to get accommodations, which is impossible without proof), and that it is awful that we are in a situation where the NHS is underfunded to the point that a standard medical letter (which I am happy to pay for) is impossible o get hold of.

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

That document is meaningless outside the UK, apparently.

You don’t need a GP to diagnose or confirm pregnancy. Send the overseas company a photo of your bump!

I think it's you that are living in a fantasy world if you think that would be accepted as medical evidence of pregnancy in any country (it certainly wouldn't in the UK).

The doctors have no problem writing private letters but we do usually charge and don't do them instantly.

This is more than fair, but sadly not available to me at my GP.

I'm not sure that it's fair to say doctors should have to provide a letter, but something needs to be done about companies using it as an excuse to be awkward when it's not something easily accessible to every patient.

I agree, but it doesn't seem right that companies should have to take medical problems on faith either. It shouldn't be so hard to get a statement of fact from our medical records.

I'm saying that providing a simple statement of a persons diagnosis SHOULD be part of a doctors remit

Agree. But it isn't the GPs fault if they haven't got the time because they are hugely under doctored

Can you not ask for your last letter or copy of your notes? I used to have to do this all the time when I worked as a med sec in private health care (obviously as that’s how insurance companies operate!) but very rarely did the doctor actually have to write a new letter, I just printed off the last letter written about the patient.

Tbh I think this is more a working abroad issue as they do ask for stupid stuff sometimes- I had to procure such a note once which I got for £10 but it’s more the fault of companies not accepting a perfectly valid form - such as your mat b1

Last one I needed such a letter it cost £80 for a private appointment and letter.

I'm very lucky, my GP wrote a letter FOC in support of a non-molestation order I was applying for through the Courts. He's fab.

My GP surgery charged about £30 or thereabouts for a letter when I got one a couple of years ago

If you need one more urgently and / or your GP won't do them, you can pay for a Push Dr appointment and get a letter pretty much immediately (I imagine Babylon do the same?)

Also good if you need a GP referral letter for private medical (eg bupa now insist on a GP letter to authorise an appointment with a consultant)

Since GDPR, you're entitled to see and get a copy of anything held in your medical notes, free of charge. So if you've had an appointment with the doctor, you can get a printout summarising the appointment afterwards, which will prove why you went (although not that you were telling the truth in the appointment, I suppose!). HTH.

But you're right of course that employers and schools expecting GPs to police absence in this way is wrong.