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.

Its fair, why should GPs do additional work for free? If it was just a copy of their medical records then you could request it as a SAR, but as a form it will require input and take time, so perfectly fair and reasonable to charge. Not sure why you think children should be free but it's fair for adults to pay?

As others have said. You have a school problem. Not a GP one.

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.

My son also has a serious, complex health condition and we have had to supply various explanations, letters and forms over the years. Are you under a specialist health service? If so they are normally happy to do this stuff for you. We have nurse specialists who complete all this kind of admin for us and are able to do it better than the GP could. Do you have something similar you can access?

You wouldn't last 5 minutes in Ireland! GP's here charge for repeat prescriptions to be written, for certs to be provided to employers and on and on and on.

We pay approximately €60 per visit to our GP. We pay for prescription medication.

We pay for health insurance.

Oh this is on top of our taxes going towards our supposed 'free' health service (like the NHS but not).

It’s normal but I do think that sounds a lot.

Part of the reason this is done is to stop other services (like schools) and employers demanding GP sign offs on all sorts of admin connected to health and sickness. Charging helps stop schools from demanding doctors notes everytime a kid gets norovirus for example. The NHS can’t deal with demand from people who actually need to see a dr for their health so they try to keep demand as low as possible for signing off on forms for things that are actually about rubber stamping health related admin for other services.

I recently paid £15 for the GP to write a supporting statement for my dc’s PIP application.

I had to pay £25 for GP letter when my son was Y11, that was a few years back so I guess probably more now. It helped get the help he needed so I was happy to pay.

Admin costs and why do you think the gp should shoulder that cost? If the gp

If there weren't so many forms there'd be less work, less people to employ

why do you have a problem with this? The GP is spending their time filling this kind of thing in all the time…. Taking them away from treating sick people.

We pay for other experts’ time, why would a GP be different? If an accountant or a solicitor needed to complete a form for you, for example, it would cost a lot more than £40.

do you have medical letters eg from CAMHS that would satisfy school

The child has a parent who should pay though.

I imagine the form is from the local authority who would require it to be able to set up the necessary arrangements for online learning.

YABU but I do understand your anger. However every process done privately takes time, short form or not, and if a GP is spending their time doing this, bearing in mind how many requests come through, then during that time they are not providing the service on the NHS that we also need. Its not really just a case of filling in a form - they do have to look up the records and check the background information.
I had to pay to get insurance documents signed after we couldn't go on holiday due to DH stroke. We also have to pay to get his documents signed as he's eligible for a free bus pass. Sadly we have to suck it up. It does seem a lot, but they are covering all bases with the charge (£50 here)

It's totally normal. My daughter's school requested 3 letters in total, at a cost of £35 each when she wasn't attending due to mental health issues. For the last one, I got rather stroppy at the school, explained how much this was costing me and demanded they be clear in what they were expecting to see from the GP, given I'd already provided them with the referral to CAMHS.

Your ire is misdirected.

While it’s standard £40 is ridiculous l!!! Ours charge €15 for prescriptions or forms x

Perfectly normal. You're paying for their time, and the fact they are doing you a good turn/a favour. I think they should charge yes. But not as much. A friend of mine wanted a 'doctors letter' to confirm something for holiday insurance. Would have taken the secretary 10 minutes to type - if that - and a minute for him (the doctor) to read through and sign. My friend had to pay £50!!! 😬

I guess you could try invoicing the school if they're the ones that want it? Doubt they'd cough up though.

lets invoice them for laundry for school uniforms too, since they insist on uniform

Someone has to write that letter up, it's a reasonable charge.

@FrostedFancy does your dd have a mental health professional involved or a specialist for their serious health condition?

I have a dc who had to be tutored at home due to complex chronic illness, rather than mh and it was their consultants that confirmed the need for home education to be provided. They just added it into their clinic letters and reiterated that it was appropriate for the provision to continue at each follow up appointment.

Fwiw, school and/or the LA are not allowed to ask for excessive or repeated evidence. All they need is copies of clinic letters stating the diagnosis and symptoms/effects to take appropriate action re providing alternative education. If they want any additional or specific information they should liaise direction with the medical professionals. The LA (not the school) is responsible for ensuring an appropriate education for your dd as soon as it becomes apparent that they are going to miss 15 days or more in any academic year. (Those days don’t need to be concurrent.)

If you haven’t already done so, have a read of the government’s guidelines regarding proving an education for pupils that cannot attend education for health reasons. You can then refer school/the LA to them as well to make sure appropriate systems are followed and they don’t put excessive amounts of stress and pressure on you or your dd.

I suspect school are asking for the form to be completed, as the LA is pushing them to fund the home education, whereas it’s actually the LA that has the legal responsibility for providing an appropriate education in this situation. If it’s likely to be a long-ish term arrangement though, the LA can either share funding responsibility or take it over completely, usually via their EOTAS (Education Other Than At School) team.

Unfortunately, as with so many things regarding the most vulnerable members of our society, this government appears to have recently watered down the statutory guidance regarding providing education for children who cannot attend school due to health needs. The most recent update is very wishy-washy compared to the previous version.

This is not an NHS service so is chargeable.
Professional services are chargeable, nothing disgusting about that, it just how business works.

Your wrath should be directed at the school for requiring this instead of discussing the situation with you and your DD and accepting documentation from her specialists.
I am sorry that your DD is poorly.

Lol try the £160 I had to pay to renew my lorry licence and I have to do this every 5 years. The appointment was 15 minutes which included filling in the form as we went.