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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is disgusting - GP charging for form

487 replies

FrostedFancy · 21/12/2023 13:39

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.

OP posts:
AnActualPlane · 21/12/2023 14:45

But this form is something they won’t get paid for by the NHS or whoever pays them. It isn’t part of their contract. It’s like saying you only want £5 of free petrol for a child the petrol owner should give it of not reimbursed, it all adds up.

LadyJingly · 21/12/2023 14:46

As others have said, the problem lies with the LA and school not working as a team with medical professionals, rather than the GP having to charge for their time.

I can absolutely see how GP’s must get really fed up of being asked to fill in forms and provide letters for children, when there is clear statutory guidance that means they shouldn’t need to. If anything they should charge the school or LA, maybe that will make them think twice about deliberately dragging out putting support in place for vulnerable pupils, by asking for excessive/onerous evidence, when in most cases they already have what they need.

Jingleballs2 · 21/12/2023 14:48

No, it's just standard to charge. Although I'm sure I paid less for forms, might depend how big they are

endofthelinefinally · 21/12/2023 14:50

I expect the GP isn't too happy about schools making unreasonable requests for time consuming, duplicated information. It isn't as if GPs have got plenty of time to be filling in forms for which the NHS isn't going to pay them. I am sorry, I know it is frustrating, but this is entirely the fault of the school.

FloweryName · 21/12/2023 14:50

I don’t understand how the vote is so strongly YABU. This is a form for a child, requested by their school so that they can access their legal right to education. Of course a parent shouldn’t be charged for this.

It’s nothing like a GP filling in a medical form so that people can drive lorries or go scuba diving or whatever. It is entirely fair for GPs to charge for things like that, but not for this.

Catza · 21/12/2023 14:51

But it doesn't take 5 minutes to complete! I do forms all day for people. You have to pull patient's records, read through them, write up summaries. Write up your clinical justification for the form being produced. It can take up to an hour if done properly.
We started doing it years ago (for free) to support patients who struggled to access their GPs for similar forms (PIP, Ill health retirement etc.) and now we are overwhelmed with the amount of letters we are requested to do. We also get requests to support applications for emotional support animals, exemption from in-person education, blue badge, request for vaccinations. None of it is supposed to be our core work and we do not have allocated time in our diaries to complete these. Frankly, I am not trained to establish whether the person will benefit from an emotional support animal.
Your anger is misplaced. It's the school you need to raise it with.

StarlightLime · 21/12/2023 14:51

Goldenpashmina · 21/12/2023 13:41

Totally standard for them to charge for completing forms

This.
Disgusting? Why?

MikeRafone · 21/12/2023 14:52

@FloweryName

do you work for free?

NonPlayerCharacter · 21/12/2023 14:53

Five minutes to complete, maybe, but years of training and ongoing work to have the required knowledge and compensation for the responsibility of it, because who gets it in the neck if it's found to be mistaken?

MrsTerryPratchett · 21/12/2023 14:53

The school isn't the problem, the GP isn't the problem, the NHS isn't the problem. We are the problem.

Voting for low tax, low service, shitty uncaring governments repeatedly means you get low services. You get healthcare and education treated like shit so you get minimum care.

Soontobe60 · 21/12/2023 14:53

FrostedFancy · 21/12/2023 13:53

For a child though? It’s not for something like a medical sign off for an activity, it’s for them to access their education.

I understand charges for adults.

Their time has to be costed, regardless of the ago of the patient,

Soontobe60 · 21/12/2023 14:55

FloweryName · 21/12/2023 14:50

I don’t understand how the vote is so strongly YABU. This is a form for a child, requested by their school so that they can access their legal right to education. Of course a parent shouldn’t be charged for this.

It’s nothing like a GP filling in a medical form so that people can drive lorries or go scuba diving or whatever. It is entirely fair for GPs to charge for things like that, but not for this.

So the GP should do it for free?

MrsTerryPratchett · 21/12/2023 14:56

And the other issue is that people think a GP letter is a 'win' in their fight for things. We get GPs asking for the most bizarre things because they are asked to write a support letter. I have to call them and say, "is it really your medical opinion that this person's medical need will be met by the thing you've said they need?". Often the answer is, "well the person asked for it and they say it is". That's another 20 minutes of their time and I'm not paying for that, they are.

MrsAvocet · 21/12/2023 14:56

It is entirely fair for GPs to charge for things like that, but not for this.
No it is entirely fair for GPs to charge for services that are not covered by their contract with the NHS and not for things which are.

dammit88 · 21/12/2023 14:57

I think this is outrageous and I have no problem with GPs charging for lots of 'form filling' or other things - but this? Agree with you OP.

endofthelinefinally · 21/12/2023 14:57

FreshWinterMorning · 21/12/2023 14:39

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!!! 😬

It is a medico legal document that requires the GP to go through the child's medical records and correspondence from the relevant clinicians. The GP is responsible for ensuring that everything they write is accurate. Then the letter is dictated, the secretary types it and it has to be checked and signed, scanned back into the patient's record. Do you think the GP should just write a medical report without looking at the records?

BungleandGeorge · 21/12/2023 14:57

They are not nhs employees working on a salary. The nhs work is paid by the nhs, everything else needs to be paid privately. Nobody should have to work for free! If the LA have requested this ask them to pay. Or ask why it’s necessary? Are there not other services involved with the child who could do it? Other evidence eg assessments and appointments. Everything is generally sent as a copy to patient/ guardian now

ActDottie · 21/12/2023 14:58

Thementalloadisreal · 21/12/2023 13:54

What’s the difference for a child vs an adult? The GP still fills the form in

This… child or adult you pay…

SevenOnTheLabel · 21/12/2023 14:58

My child’s school ‘needed’ a letter from the doctor for something. GP receptionist said we couldn’t have the letter without seeing the GP and if would be £25. We said that’s ok, can we have an appointment please. Sorry no appointments, call at 8am. Called at 8am and got through between 8.10 to 8.40 for the next 2 weeks to be told there was no appointments. In the end we used a private GP at a cost of over £100 for the appointment and letter.

We made a copy as school ‘needed’ the original. Then the school lost it and asked for another. A copy wasn’t good enough. At this point I told them I wasn’t paying again and I wouldn’t be paying for any in future.

When my second child needed similar, I just said no. They had other medical evidence, I told them to pay for it if it was ‘needed’ and never heard anything more about it.

I don’t blame the GPs, I blame schools and whoever tells them they ‘need’ this evidence. If it’s needed and education is ‘free’, these letters shouldn’t be funded by parents paying.

ActuallyChristmas · 21/12/2023 14:59

We had to pay £35 for a letter confirming the need for access arrangements for A Levels - DC types and gets some extra time. We didn’t need this for GCSEs as school had accessors who came in to assess all needing arrangements and there were no charges. The letter is one sentence confirming minor disability. They took triple the time they said they would to supply it. In the meantime I sent the sixth form college a couple of OT reports they didn’t have and - although these were old docs - they said they now would not need the letter. I’d already paid.

Hbh17 · 21/12/2023 14:59

If you want someone's time (way more than 5 minutes) and professional expertise, you pay for it. This has been the case for decades. What's incredible is that the OP seems to have no concept of how GPs work or what they do. £40 sounds like a bargain, considering how it will help the OP's child.

Mindymomo · 21/12/2023 15:03

My DS missed an Exam due to sickness and diarrhoea, we had to get a GP letter to say this, which they charged £25 this was 10 years ago. GP never examined him and letter was 2 lines long.

ATerrorofLeftovers · 21/12/2023 15:04

It’s one thing for GPs to charge for things that are optional/elective - eg a letter needed to carry meds or insulin needles on a holiday flight.Absolutely right that NHS time isn’t used for that and a reasonable charge is levied. This should reflect the actual time and resources needed to complete it though, and not be seen as an opportunity to rinse patients.

It’s quite another thing to charge for something that is required as treatment for a child’s medical condition, as is the case here. Treating a child’s medical condition is absolutely within the scope of a GP’s work. Prescribing a required set of conditions on school is no different to prescribing medication. It’s shocking that a GP would seek to profit from a child’s medical condition like this. Not least because many GPs will be earning salaries way higher than the patients they are gouging.

Janewontmessage · 21/12/2023 15:05

It’s akin to theft @FrostedFancy

all these posters who don’t question it are the reason these things carry on

endofthelinefinally · 21/12/2023 15:05

How much is a solicitor's letter these days?

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