To not want to pay this charge....

[Hawkeyelisa]

Hi everyone,
my dd#1 aged 8 has had an ingrown toenail since Sep 09. She has not been able to do PE or swim while the toe was very infected and inflamed. I have informed the school in writing of this.
She had an operation to correct it in late December 09 and it is finally getting better - hurray!
I was collared in the playground yesterday by her teacher and told that I need a "Letter from the doctor" to say why she still can't do PE etc. I asked the doctor and he wasnt happy, but he did a letter.
However, he charged me £14.50!
I have taken it to the headmistress today and she just shrugged and said "It's a legal requirement as she has been absent from PE for so long" and she is refusing to refund me the money for the letter SHE requested.
AIBU? I don't have to pay for this do I?
I have left the headmistress to phone to doctor, so they can sort it out between them. I am caught in the middle of this grrr
Tell me I'm not going totally bonkers....
Lisa.

I have heard nothing from school all day about the charges. I was expecting a call to at least say that they were looking into it, but nothing.
What I forgot to say before was that my GP is also on the Board of Governors at our school, whether that makes a difference or not I have no idea. What I mean is that he will already know the headmistress personally. I wonder if he was trying to prove a point, and I just got caught in the middle?
It is a bit of a touchy subject for me all round, as the self-same GP was very reluctant to refer dd for the op at all. In fact it took many weeks of persuasion, and a second opinion for him to finally do it. He just doesn't refer children for "non essential" operations apparently. The thing is that my dh had the same problems at age 15 and he knows that it just never gets better without an op.
Thanks for the reassurance Mice, I am sure that dd will be doing PE from next week and now that the big bandage is off, she can start to get back to normal, after almost five months of agony for her.
I am resigned to having to pay for the charge, but as is my way, I wanted to make a point. One day I'll learn to take the easy route through....
Lisa.

I wouldn't have got the letter but instead sent an email to the school saying the doctor had advised that she mustn't do PE.
It is very unlikely they would be stupid enough to go against that.

(i operated on my own ingrowing toenail using DDs pliers and tin-snips and a bottle of TCP)

Lots of fault to go around.

The headmistress should be a lot less dogmatic about paperwork.

The surgery should have told you they would charge beforehand. Also, £14.50 does seem excessively high, especially for a child - surely the letter would be adapted from a standard file by the secretaries, and the doctor merely has to sign it? No more than a total of 10 minutes work.

You should probably have confirmed in advance whether there would be charges though.

Personally I would just pay it and be done with it. However...if you don't pay it the school will presumably have to follow procedure to formally ascertain why dd isn't doing P.E. which will be a ball ache for them.
GP can't just inform school about dd as a school governor due to patient confidentiality I would think.

Tis rubbish, you shouldn't have bothered with the letter.

thesecondcoming did you go to a now closed convent in dorset by any chance as the one I went to also had said grotto in it!

I did a thread very similar to this last year, when my DD had been in hospital with swine flu and I needed a GP letter to get money back on a ballet exam she was due to do, and then got charged £10....I was pretty gobsmacked I must admit.

I was told I was being unreasonable to be shocked at the charge tho, as really GP's jobs are to treat patients, not wirte letters to get money back for exams, lessons etc.....and I saw the point of those telling that.

it did work out tho, DD3 got her exma rearranged free of charge, and the ballet teacher refunded the £10 to me aswell, as she was the one insisting on the letter and had no idea that it would cost me. I was very pleased with that outcome, and I will never again complain about the extra charges the GP.s makes for things like that as I see now that really it is over and above their job description, and if we did extra in any job we did (or if I did), I would expect to be paid for it.

that said, I don;t agree with the fact that your DDs school is kicking off and not beleiving you.

I would be more agry at that than the GP charging you for a letter.........bloody out of order, can you not show them her toe, they cannot exactly say you are making it up then in the face of proof surely???

Doctors get paid a salary for seeing patients not for all the added admin out letigious / buracratic society needs .

If it is a ''legal requirement' I would ask the headmistress in writing, for the act and section or copy of the directive from the LEA re length of time /circumstances ( which would not be a legal requiremnt but would mean she would have to aleast ask) or ask her if her if she is indemnified if a child comes to harm doing PE against a parents wishes - what sanctions is she going to impose if you dont spend the £15?
( all above if your brave lol)

Both times that ds2 has had a broken arm, he has had to miss PE whilst the cast was on (obviously) but also afterwards for at least a week, on doctor's orders, and neither school (junior school first time round, senior school second time) had any problem with this.

I simply sent in a letter detailing the doctor's instructions, and the schools were happy with this - I certainly wasn't asked for a doctor's note. And the schools could have wondered why he couldn't do PE once the cast was off, but they trusted me.

I think this merits a complaint in writing to the school, as it demonstrates to me that the school were more worried about their paperwork and guidelines than your dd's health and wellbeing.

Just to clarify,
I am totally on the side of my GP, in that I understand that it is not his responsibility to provide these letters for free. Sorry if I had not explained that properly.
I am more miffed at the school for not believing me as to the extent of dd's condition, and trying to pull the wool over my eyes with this "legal requirement" cr&p.
I am still waiting to hear what has been decided.
My dh is fuming, moreso than I am. He has had ingrown toenails operated on, himself, at age 15 or so I think, and he said it is a really brutal procedure, they literally cut a channel out of the toe.
He has suggested that if we are made to pay for this, i.e. the school will not refund, then we will simply take the £14.50 out of the next school dinner bill we get and see how they react to that.
I will update as and when I get a response, not holding my breath.
Lisa.

You have my total sympathy and glad your little one is getting better.

If I were you I think I would be writing a nice polite letter to the school, outlining your concerns about their treatment of your daughter (trying to make her do PE in front of her classmates is bordering on bullying) and include copies of the paperwork from the hospital regarding her Operation (which should have been enough for them anyway) and add in your receipt for £14.50 from the GP surgery. Explain that since they require additional information/proof of your daughters condition, you are taking the opportunity to 'present your account' and will look forward to receiving reimbursement of the administrative costs of providing said evidence above and beyond what is usually considered acceptable.

They sound incredibly unreasonable and your GP less than helpful - so sorry for you having to deal with this extra hassle!