GP charging for blue badge letter - disabled child

[GPlettercharge]

Just checking if this is usual practice to be charged for a GP to write a supporting letter for a blue badge application for a disabled child?

My child is 5, has profound learning difficulties and ASD. Is non verbal and attends specialist school. Displays many challenging behaviours and has no sense of danger. Regularly refuses to walk and can also try to run into the road etc.

Our local authority are notoriously difficult in giving out blue badges and I was advised by his specialist school to get a supporting letter from the GP to apply for a blue badge as they’ve seen first hand how dangerous he is in a car park.

Our GP had an appt with him and has agreed to write the letter. However they have charged £40 for this.

Is this standard? It seems excessive, it’s not as though we’ve asked for a letter to support us going on holiday or something. This is for a disabled child!

I suppose I will pay it if necessary but wanted to check if this was the norm.

Thanks

Consultants

Consultants don’t details of all the appointments that have occurred in a gp surgery.

I a look so think that people kg e need to change their mindset regarding gps. Ie. No longer thinking it as

gp = nhs

But think of it it as

gp = nhs services (healthcare) + non nhs services (letters, insurance Information etc)

I also think there’s plenty of empathy. But many, like I, do not accept that shock at not getting something for free is reasonable.

Yes - I genuinely didn’t realise this. I suppose I thought they must be paid to provide services by the NHS and thought they wouldn’t have given me an appt to facilitate a letter if they charged for the service.

To me it seems like something that should be covered even though it isn’t and many people clearly don’t think it should be.

Good to get the clarification though.

I’m perfectly prepared to pay for things that aren’t covered by the NHS eg we paid for my son to have the chicken pox vaccination as he simply wouldn’t be able to deal with getting the chicken pox as it would be a sensory overload for him.

Completely normal. A GP is contracted to provide healthcare, not write letters.
This has been a standard charge for decades.

Our LA is notorious for turning them down and our specialist school suggested that we get a GP’s letter to help our case. I duly did - hence the issue.

To be honest, I was reluctant to get one as I felt that given that he can walk a bit like we didn’t really need one. Hearing from his specialist teacher that he absolutely does was a feeling like someone finally understood how hard it all is.

seeing the replies on here however, I’m fully expecting to be challenged should we ever use a disabled bay if we get a badge.

Thanks, good thing you came along 7 pages later.

You shouldn’t be shocked. It’s an additional ask on top of all the clinical work the GP has to do in their very busy day. It’s time consuming.

https://www.scope.org.uk/campaigns/extra-costs/disability-price-tag-2023

please could some of the rampant ableism in this thread be counteracted
please read this and understand the huge cost implications that people face when they have disabilities
And no disability benefits don't touch the sides
And yes having a disability bring a huge cost penalty

@Hobnobswantshernameback thank you for sharing that.

I doubt it will do anything though - there’s so many people around who absolutely hate anyone with disabilities and anyone who needs extra help.

There was a post about a priority pass at Disneyland on here last week that was awful. So many people saying it was unfair disabled people get “to jump the queue” and about all the extra unfair benefits they get like blue badges and discounted parking.

It really is a race to the bottom

I think she is coming across as exhausted and frustrated by the constant fight and battle it is for her and her child

Well at least this made me smile!

Good to know there’s decent people with empathy around.

Quite scary how many don’t though

That sounds awful.

Hope you get your blue badge op x

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5320973-theme-park-queue-jumping-for-dlp?page=1

here you go - prepare to be depressed.

Some person wanted to hire a random with a disability to accompany their family for the day so they could skip all the queues.

It then descended into a benefits bashing thread of nastiness

It’s a shame that you had to pay for this letter. Ideally, it would have been free. Unfortunately lots of people are getting shafted, and that includes GPs, which is why they’ve had to charge you. I remember a GP on here posting a bank statement for her practice with a £10k overdraft balance.

Who on this thread has shown they hate people with disabilities?
Can you link me to them please?

I can’t understand why the blue badge rules are not the same for every council. My council gives them out like sweets, it’s stupidly easy to get one, yet others make you jump through hoops.

I don’t believe GPs should do the letters for free, but it’s very wrong that other evidence you have isn’t sufficient enough and you have to pay for this to be done.

So I am deleted for pointing out how horrible it is on here generally at the minute but som vile ableism allowed to stand
speaks volumes

Why are you still here?

You been asked to go away and leave my thread.

The DLA that you receive for your son's disability is specifically provided to help cover the extra costs incurred as a result of disability, such as this letter.

Letters, forms etc aren't part of the standard NHS provision and GPs can't recover the cost from the NHS. Therefore it is absolutely right that they charge for it.

I've edited to add that I'm sorry everything is such a battle, and I don't mean for my tone to come across as harsh. It's just one of those quite black and white scenarios for the surgery.

No you were deleted for calling people cunts for disagreeing with the OP.

Ableism is not ok nor is calling people who disagree with people cunts. Speaks volumes that you think it is ok to call anyone who disagrees and expects to be paid for a job as a cunt.

So you support exploitation and anyone who says it workers should be paid for the work they do is a cunt. Abhorrent.