The charge for a letter is excessive!

[Dilbertian]

We are applying for Special Consideration for ds in his A-level assessments, as he was ill for most of the spring term. Obviously the school know (and they have been brilliant ) but we have to provide supporting evidence in the form of a letter from the GP. The letter will cost £72.

Ironically, we were in the same situation with dd three years ago. She was discharged from hospital the day before her first exam. But in her case all we had to do was submit a copy of her hospital discharge note, which was, of course, free.

We expected to pay for the GP letter, but £72?! Surely that's unaffordable for many families? Is it fair? We can afford to pay it, and will. But it feels wrong.

AIBU to think that such letters for children and young people in education, particularly for situations that can have a massive effect on their futures, should not be so expensive?

Aren’t schools assessing internally? I don’t get why the exam board would need a letter?

@Dilbertian YANBU!

YABU.
Unfortunately GP's are inundated with work. Any time they spend doing a letter for you is time that could be spent looking after a patient.
If you think the time spent by a highly qualified professional isnt worth £70 then it's not obligated for you to spend it.

A lot of GP's flat out refuse this work in the first place.

@Dilbertian

If asking a GP to glance back at a handful of interactions in the last 5 months - all of which are immediately visible on their database - and make a note about them, is an outrageous demand, how much more so to ask for a full history? And not pay for it! Why is asking for an SAR reasonable in this case? Besides, submitting his full medical history would be a huge invasion of ds's privacy, as well as irrelevant. And we have 10 days in which to make the submission. We cannot wait for 1-3 months for this, even if we wanted to.

I do not object to paying for services rendered. I object to having those essential services restricted to only those who can afford to pay for them. This isn't about a visa or a gun licence - this is about young people's futures.

I agree with you OP.

£75 means that poorer students and those on low incomes more generally simply cannot provide GP's notes as medical evidence. It is completely unfair.

It is unfair. But the problem is not with the GP, who is merely asking for payment for what is private work.
The unfairness is that this is not a publicly funded service.

They can charge what they like. Ours does it for free and has for my son in the past. But I know another local doctor charges.

@jellyfrizz

Aren’t schools assessing internally? I don’t get why the exam board would need a letter?

This is just spin. The government has told schools to assess but they have to have certain info from the children, ideally under exam conditions and similar work from all students. As many of these assessments will have been while OP's son was ill he needs evidence for the school which they can give to the exam boards if his case is called in for moderation. Essentially the exams have just been brought forward a couple of months, students have had less time to revise and teachers told to mark more work than usual.

Lockheart, I am not a liar, if this did not involve private medical records I would post the proof. Why have you made this comment.

Why do you expect this to be cheap op? Any idea what a solicitors letter costs?

My orthopedist just did a letter for me to ask that I be excused from jury duty and he didn't charge anything. I think his nurse did it and he just signed it.

@jellyfrizz

Aren’t schools assessing internally? I don’t get why the exam board would need a letter?

These are JCQ requirements regardless

It’s not education authorities. It’s JCQ who require these. JCQ is not a public service. Probably should be.

@Dilbertian WOW, that is a piss take.

There are plenty of people who are making excuses for it though. There is no reason on EARTH to charge this. IDGAF how much the cost of a GP's time would be PRIVATELY!

I would query this with the practice manager.

@TroysMammy

We usually don't charge but one GP charges £10 for a letter which goes in the staff kitty towards nights out. Haven't had one of them for ages though.

Are you actually kidding? You charge needy and desperate patients, (many who will not be very well off financially,) so the staff can go out on a jolly?!

Just when I thought I had read everything on here.

And 'would YOU work for free?' (as some posters have asked!) is a stupid question. The GP is NOT working for free! They are getting a truck load of TAXPAYERS money 365 days a year, for not doing very much actually... not at the moment. And they have the effing cheek to charge £72 to draft a poxy letter that takes 5 minutes to do. Fucking scandalous!

@allmycats

I remember many years ago my son, an athlete, was selected for the World youth games. He had some forms for anti doping agency that the GP needed to sign. They charged £140 to a school boy. Many years later the same GP came to the optician where I work for DVLA form signing. He said ' I am a pensioner how much is it' after the form had been completed. Optician looks over to me and asks, ' how much did X charge for a signature on your D Sons form when he was still at school. £140 says me. Optician to GP ' The cost is £140. GP had to pay up. Karma !!

Really....... ??? I am not sure this would even be legal. Even if it is legal (and this is actually true,) it sounds like a pretty disgusting, shady was to behave.

It is true. Why do you think it may not be legal. ? . I would not have posted if it was not true. Most people locally were very pleased at my son representing GB, and some local firms even helped with his training costs etc. The local GP did not think the same way, yet when he wanted a form signing he wanted it for a discount, or free. He asked for OAP discount, but did not think in the same way when he was charging a school boy. If you don't believe it that is up to you, but I know the truth.

@Dilbertian a SAR is just a print out of the existing record (with a quick check to ensure it dosent contain anyone else’s confidential info). It is not asking for a medical opinion. It’s pretty risk free mediolegaly and just needs an admin person to press print/send. Soon we will all be able to see them online anyway. A letter is a different thing it’s asking the medical professionals to give their professional opinion on something. A letter saying “Johnny was too ill to study” is pretty low grade I agree but you are asking them to use their professional knowledge to make a judgment. When your dd was in hospital it was easy to do a letter probably because again that was a statement of fact “Janet was in hospital from x to x” isn’t a professional opinion

@littlepattilou
The GP is paid £95 per year per patient by the taxpayer to do a defined list of medical services (GMS), school letters are not on that list so the GP cannot write one on nhs time using nhs resources as that is nhs fraud. Of you feel this should be a free service and I agree as it disadvantages poorer families the person to get annoyed with is your MP or the exam board. A similar example would be adoptive parent medicals which a not a NHS funded service but are generally a good things that poorer people shouldn’t be prevented from accessing so are funded at a set rate by social services. The department of education or the exam boards could fund the NHS to provide this service - I’d get behind a campaign for this

I don't charge for my professional letters unless it's a full report. £72.00 is ridiculous.