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.

GP are for profit businesses who are commissioned to undertake NHS work they also have multiple chargeable services such as documentation, consultation letters. It’s a for profit business and that’s their model

This - you have explained it perfectly. It's all part of treating the Childs medical condition.

It'll be chargeable because its outside the scope of the NHS contract with the GP practise. If we wanted it to be free, the NHS contracts would be more expensive and cost tax payers more.

How much do you think a solicitor or a lawyer would charge for such a letter?

I suspect it might be more than 5min by the time the GP has read the notes, digested the info and summarised it on the form. They won’t know your child’s medical history off the top of your head

Do you expect Tesco to give your child free food? Do children travel free on trains? Do children get into the cinema for free?

Sorry your daughter is so ill. What an awful situation. I agree with the others that her specialists should be supplying this information as part of their care?

People need to know that GPs are not NHS. They are private services that are contracted to the NHS - no different from dental surgeries.

It is disgusting that they have to do this, yes.

And any of those are relevant to the circumstances here how, exactly?

The amount charged is obviously exorbitant but there's nothing you can do about it - I agree with the question, what do people who can't afford it do?

Sorry OP your dd is ill.

however this is pretty much standard across GP and isn’t a new thing, I’d be personally question why they are asking for a form simply stating home school is required. Is she not under specialist care?

I’d like to know this too. What do those children do? Struggle without appropriate learning? Eat food that will trigger anaphylaxis? What?

Way to go to damage the GP/patient alliance and trust.

How are they not relevant? We pay for goods and services, that shouldn't be news to anyone 🤷🏻‍♀️

Understanding a charge for an adult and not for a child makes absolutely no sense. Is it not still a form that needs to be filled out by the GP?

I am amazed a gp would agree to do it at all. Generally advice like that would could from a specialist in the area concerned.

@ATerrorofLeftovers OP is saying that she understands adults being charged, but not children. I was making the point that just because someone is a child, doesn’t mean they get stuff for free. GP surgeries are businesses, like Tesco. They get most of their money from NHSE, but also from private sources eg patients, solicitors, insurance companies. They aren’t charities.

I can't even get a five minute GP appointment so I'm ok with them charging for extra paperwork.

Would have taken the secretary 10 minutes to type - if that - and a minute for him (the doctor) to read through and sign.

How would the secretary know what to type?

How would the doctor know that what the secretary had typed was accurate?

What might the legal and professional consequences be for a doctor who signed a letter written by a non-medically qualified person, about a patient's medical condition, without actually checking the information in the letter was accurate?

I think a lot of this is to encourage people to use the service thoughtfully.

Imagine if everyone can just go to the GP and demand an unlimited number of free letters. Then the GP, who is already working longer hours than they are paid for, will have a huge extra unpaid workload. Some consequences of this could be

• important letters about people's cancer get delayed because of the huge numbers of letters about sick leave etc

• GPs get sick themselves with the extra workload

• GPs leave and go to Australia

• then outpatient appointments become even harder to get because there are fewer GPs in the surgery

We have some of this happening in the NHS anyway. It's really important to protect people's time so that we can have a health service.

I agree though, it is really tough on people on low incomes who struggle to pay for letters (speaking as someone who generally did letters for vulnerable patients for free)

Essentially you are paying for the GP’s time, responsibility and expertise. Can you tell me which professionals will give you that for free?

And also it’s not a quick job when they need to get into the records find the appropriate information from the form - especially if it’s not from their own consultations. Then fill in the form. Multiply that by the amount of forms they get each week and the rest of the work load.

I imagine it’s a bit like schools. They are obliged to provide a core service, for which they are paid by the government eg teachers, classroom, seats, tables, buildings, playground, science equipment etc. If you want extra stuff - trips to the theatre, zoo, skiing or whatever - you have to pay.

@FrostedFancy
You can ask your GP for a summary note.
If you are in Scotland, this should be free of charge and will give a summary of health & medications.
I would ask the school if they would accept this first and if so, request the summary from GP. Hopefully save spending the £40.

Alternatively, if your daughter is under assessment or open to any mental health team, you can ask her CPN to provide a supporting letter - they may not wish to do so depending on individual service policy/appropriateness but they may provide a generic letter detailing you daughters current situation. No guarantees they will provide but certainly worth asking if such services are involved.

OP of course YANBU. It is insane, and even more insane that everyone thinks it's normal.

When dh wanted his form for his HGV filled, it would've cost £140 with our GP, he went privately and it cost £35.

@Whatsthisbug why is it insane?