To think this is disgusting - GP charging for form

[FrostedFancy]

GP surgery insist I must pay £40 for completion of a form from school to request online learning for my DD (14) who is suffering from MH issues due to being diagnosed with a serious health condition.

AIBU to think this is absolutely disgusting to profit from a child with medical condition and mental health issues needing access to an education?

Form literally would take 5 minutes to complete.

@littlebopeepp234 Agreed, absolutely. Do you know if teachers can also charge by law for such services?

Teachers (SENDCOs) are paid to meet the educational needs of SEND children - you expect to be paid twice? Further LAs and NHS have an obligation in law to work together to ensure SEND childrens' eductaional and healthcare needs are met in a joined-up way. These are statutory responsibilities.

I know they do!!! But filling in forms is classed as PRIVATE work and not for the NHS and is NOT part of their contract they have with the NHS!! It is separate!!!! Filling out any form that is NOT directly related to the NHS ie. If the form is not requested by another NHS organisation then the form is classed as PRIVATE! Therefore a GP practice even though they hold an NHS contract, filling in flippin forms for schools is NOT part of that contract so you can argue it until you are blue in the face. I used to work in a GP practice for many years and all forms unless it has the form has an NHS logo on it and has been requested to be completed by another NHS establishment, are classed as private work at does NOT come under the NHS. That also includes filling in forms for schools!

I’m not talking about teachers I’m talking about GP practices where I have a lot of knowledge in that area

@Deliria I'm merely a class teacher and not a SENDCo (thank God-it's a never-ending job) so guess it doesn't concern me. I only spend around six hours a day with the 30 children in my class so suppose the SENDCo knows them better.

@littlebopeepp234 I understand. My point is that it feels so many people have an expectation that teachers take on extra work for nothing. Which of course they already do. Many, many hours of free work.

Yes but I don’t understand your point. This thread is about GP practices and them charging for forms. GP practices and school are completely unrelated and are separate entities

@littlebopeepp234 My point is that GPs can and do charge for private work outside if normal working hours. Fair enough. Same goes for many other professions.
How much do teachers charge for marking books at 10pm of an evening?
Are expectations different and why?

I don’t know why expectations are different so I’m not sure why you’re asking me? I did not choose to be a teacher as a career choice so I cannot answer that question. I’m sure you have just stated further up the thread that you are a teacher so surely you must be able to answer your own question?? I just don’t understand why you have quoted one of my posts and asked me??

@littlebopeepp234 I can answer the question. Expectations of teachers are that they would fill in such forms for no charge in their own time. Doctors in the main are (absolutely rightly) respected. Teachers are not.

Ok why do your pupils come to you with forms to fill in that are completely unrelated to school? Such as NHS forms? Or forms such as benefits forms, travel insurance forms, criminal injuries compensation forms, immigration forms, life insurance forms? No thought not! Any form you probably would be asked to complete would most likely be related to that child’s education and probably once in a blue moon rather than umpteen times a day. With GP practices they get all the above forms thrown at them maybe 5-10 times per day. Also the forms that GPs have to sign have a legal element to them so that GP can be held accountable for what they have written and signed to! And THAT is why they charge, because it is classed as private work and is also classed as a legal document that has to be truthful and factual and that they have put their name to

@littlebopeepp234 We are asked to fill in forms, of course we are! Example: please write a detailed letter explaining my child has (insert condition here) that we can provide as evidence for housing. Difference: we can't charge.

So take that up with tge department of education then? Or whoever is in charge?? I still don’t understand why you have singled me out specifically on this thread to make your comments at? My posts relate directly to GP practices as I have knowledge in that area!

I paid £30 for a letter so school would provide a dairy free menu before she was diagnosed, she's now grown out of it, but I was annoyed at paying. However if I had to pay for drs visits and treatments I probably wouldn't be here

@lucie82 But according to posters on here a GP would also charge you for this form?

I think you have to pay for lots of things from gp. We can have one set of our records for free then if we need another we have to pay £50. I haven't read the rest of the posts tbf.

@lucie82 Would this also annoy you as it did when the school requested a similar fee?

Standard.

I'm not sure if posters like @Deliria (given the username) are being deliberately obtuse. They cannot distinguish between legal requirements and bureaucracy for the sake of it. GP is not obliged to support the latter for free.

Reasonable adjustments are based on the needs of a child. In fact they can (and should be provided) even before there's any medical diagnosis. They refuse to do this and are putting in as many obstacles to block access and not pay out. That's their issue and not the GP's!

A 'similar' situation I suppose would an employer asking for a fit note for short absences.
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/caring-carers-and-long-term-conditions/when-do-i-need-a-fit-note/
For less than 7 days off your employers should NOT be asking for medical evidence. They can ask you, the employee to fill in a form. But they absolutely should not charge for it.

If your workplace insists on a fit note for even a day's absence why should the GP provide it for free? It's not legally required. It's your employer who's breaking the law (or not following 'guidance').

In a similar vein all manner of places including schools ask for fit notes, GP letters etc when not required. Just to make it harder. Actually GP's making it 'free' would just make the problem worse and not address the real issue which is that the institutions asking for all this paperwork' don't want to provide what they're legally required to.

@gggonewired When you say "they", to whom are you referring?

If you're referring to my first sentence - every poster who think that GPs' should fill out forms for free. Forms that are not legally required.
Whether said form is demanded by an educational institution is not relevant.

So true. The school will have had relevant clinic letters forwarded to them containing all the information they would be asking for on the form anyway. It’s just completely unnecessary.

And yes employees have to self certify for the first 7 days of sickness but there are still a small minority of employers who insist on telling employees they need a sick note before the 7 day period is over because they seem to think they are above the law

Dear me.

It's another flock of those self-appointed guardians of the NHS who enjoy adamantly telling the person with the symptoms of PE they would definitely be wasting the NHS's time if they visited A&E...

One more time, the law requires the NHS and LAs to work in partnership in order to meet the education and health care needs of SEND children in an integrated way. Yes, this requires some adminstrative effort and the exchange of information. These are statutory responsibilities which no one should be charged for.

And no, these are not reasonable adjustments - that is covered by entirely seperate legislation.

Note: NHS is the key term.

Vague thinks like 'administrative effort' and 'exchange of information' is really irrelevant here as the devil is in the detail.
Refusing to share information is going against their statutory responsibilities.
Refusing to provide information in a very specific format, as required by the LA, when this information is already readily available in any other format is not.

At the end of the day the issue is the culture of 'accountability' if clinic letters etc as @littlebopeepp234 stated are available then why is this not accepted. Why do lines need to be handwritten and signed by a GP, in some specific form.

Who charges for what is not really relevant in the face of the overwhelming bureaucracy and paperwork that's required for the simplest of things.

@Deliria yes, NHS is a relevant term here.

GPs are not (for the most part) NHS employees. They are contracted by the NHS to provide services. The NHS pays for these services so that they are free at the point of care to patients. If the contract doesn't cover certain things, the GP may still provide those things but is unlikely to do so for free. Free doesn't keep the lights on in the surgery or pay the GP's employees.