for having to pay the doctor?

[LouIsOnAHighwayToHell]

I had to have a medical done for a job application. All that was required from the Doctor was to do my BP, test my refelxes, listen to my lungs and heart, push and prod here for a bit and take some blood. Oh and stamp her name on a form. It took her all of 15 minutes to do this.
This cost me the grand sum of £120!!
Now I pay tax, rarly go to the doctor and am fit and healthy so I fail to see why I should have to pay so much for such a basic service?

blood tests done privately are bloody expensive

Sorry but YABU.
It is not an NHS service and GPs therefore would be doing it for free if they didn't charge.
It definitely wasn't 'a normal appointment' nor a 'basic service' as it is purely for the purposes of your job not because of a medical need. It would have been a 30 minute appointment for a medical in all probability.
There is guidance for GPs as to what they should charge for private services and this sounds standard to me.
What is unreasonable is that your employers are not reimbursing you the cost. They should be as this is a direct expense of doing your job.

flip yes, GPs are self employed

YABVU, thinking you know how much these things should cost.
I bet you'd complain less about a plumbers charges.

I think I'd raise a ruck with the employer to get that reimbursed.

My GP is worth his weight in gold but £120 is a hell of a lot of money - its like the employer putting in a hefty barrier to being able to get the job.

YANBU to be shocked at the cost, your GP INBU to charge the fee but your employer ABU.

£120 is an outrageous amount for the service performed in the OP.

Here in France a really expensive GP charges EUR 70 for a consultation (which will last between 15 and 30 minutes). You can address several issues during that single consultation. Most GPs (who are self-employed) will not charge for completing medical forms for schools or employers or sports clubs.

But if you consulted a Barrister you would think yourself lucky to get away with £120 for 15mins including a written statement...

Why did you need a medical for a job application?

I do agree it was a lot of money though as I would have thought that this sort of "check up" was fairly standard.

You need to consider that the GP is taking responsibility for the state of your health, also, by certifying you fit. If it turned out that you were unfit after all, he could be held responsible. Additionally, if you had health issues flagged, you would expect him to deal with them.

YABU im afraid, non NHS work should attract a charge; though I think your employer should be more helpful in reimbursing you- effectively they are using your GPs services and indemnity insurance instead of providing and paying for occupational health services.

You may be just one person but there are a loads of organisations who say - just get a note from your doctor. GPs are presented with loads of forms in routine surgery- fit to join a gym, fit to skydive, child needs a note to perform, etc. None of these are standard NHS services, all take time to look at notes, perform exams, cost money to perform tests that might not be clinically indicated but which insurance companies want etc, which is time and resources away from sick patients.

As well as this if a Dr signs a form they are legally liable for it- imagine if theres a problem in future and you or the employer want to sue as information was innaccurate or missing, why should they indemnify you or your employer for free? (medical practice insurance is covered by the individual doctor not the NHS)

I can understand your frustration but think we have a very distorted idea of what healthcare and professional medical services cost in this country. There have been some suggestions recently that you should be presented with a breakdown of cost after a hospital stay - not to pay but to show you how much it actually costs Just how much would you pay a lawyer or plumber for their time and services?

COI - not a GP and have had to pay for non NHS covered medical exams/tests in the past when arranging a job abroad.

No, the £55.00 was not reasonable. The GP did not examine my mother, but needed an emergency private prescription and he was happy to prescribe it over the phone directly to the pharmacy. The market rate in the US is about $15.00, so £55.00 was plucked seemingly out of the air.

Although am not sure how much lab work costs? A routine blood test and results? Even if this was £40.00, then it means the GP appointment would be about £80.00 including writing the report.

YABU - it isn't simply a matter of paying the gp for her time.

First off, they have to work out of premises so a portion of your £120 goes towards

rent
rates
insurance
electricity
maintenance
cleaning

Then they have to pay support staff so another portion of the £120 went towards

receptionist
admin staff
telephone bill
stationery bill

Finally the equipment used to examine used has to be found, brought, paid for and maintained.

I expect the gp actualy got a very small portion of the £120. And it would have been taxed too.

You talk as though the gp asked you to write her a personal cheque and then gleefully stuffed it down her bra!

Go complain to your employers

And your gp didn't "just take some blood" - she sent it to a lab to be tested. Those people and premises also have to be paid for

You can get cosmetic surgery on the NHS, I know of quite a few people who've done it and laughed about how easy it was to convince their doc that they were depressed

It shouldn't be £120?! It is a ridiculous amount of money for a little bit of paper! Though seeing the other costs involved I can [semi-] understand it, I think I'd be just as shocked as you if I were presented that bill!

liath: That's actually amazing. I hope I never need a form for work or anything!

I'm glad that I'm on benefits atm, my doc presented me with 6 months worth of extremely strong pain medication by prescription, I dread to think how much that would have cost me

I don't think amount charged is unreasonable. I am sure blood tests cost a fortune. My vet wanted £100 to do some blood tests on my cat!

However, I do not think OP should pay. The employer should.

ok ok ok I get it.
I did not know about the self employment and the costs involved. Thank you to those who gave me some constructive information rather then a rant. I am now more aware of the situation with GP's and their role within the NHS and surgeries. Now that I have facts I do not begrudge them the cost.
As for my prospective employer paying. I will ask for it to be reimbursed if I get the job.

That´s what I don´t understand OP-I would have thought a medical could have waited until a job offer?

diddl - I need the medical to get the job. Have to see if I am fit and healthy etc to do the job.

I'm not so sure you're being unreasonable.

As a country, something we might want our NHS to do is check people's fitness for work.

If GPs charge, that puts a barrier between people and jobs.

GPs are doing very well out of the NHS: they're paid on average £106,000 a year.

At the same time they've been starting to charge higher and higher fees for a widening range of supposedly non-essential services. Like medicals and some vaccinations.

Where we live they've even started to charge for wart removal, claiming that this is a "self-limiting condition" which would go away eventually without treatment, so the NHS shouldn't provide it. That's potentially a very slippery slope.

No-one else can set themselves up as a dr and offer these services in competition. And I'm not at all sure that price competition is the way we want to choose our drs. That's why this whole NHS thing was started.

Bafe has it in one, the actual profit to the GP is a very small % of what is paid!

Blimey how much do you pay an on call plumber/electrician/locksmith, to see a solicitor/accountant!

People in this country are so used to getting medical care "free at source" (yes yes I know paid for by taxes), that they have no idea/concept of paying for it!

On top of this, the anti dr government spin, and the fact that GP's have had a pay freeze for the last few years (which when you take into account all the associated increase in costs like staff salaries and overheads is actually a pay cut), no wonder everyone is so anti dr and moral of GP's is at an all time low!

I think it's a fairly easy assumption to make that because we have an NHS, all services are free. if you haven't had much experience with the NHS/visited your GPs surgery very often, then perhaps it's an even easier assumption. I remember years ago, being surprised at the 'price list' which was displayed in our waiting room but now that I'm older and wiser, i can understand why these optional extras are charged for.

Good luck with the job

in DHs line of work (public transport) employees are required to undertake a medical examination once they have been successful at interview. the company pays for it. the only BU thing in the OP is the prospective employer not footing the bill. That you should have to be out of pocket so you can apply for a job is totally wrong IMO, they should interview first and then pay for the succussful ones to be medically tested as necessary depending on the nature of the job.

£55 sounds cheap to me. We paid I think £50 to see the doctor for my m-i-l, and then a private prescription charge on top of that.

Considering that if we want to make a 20 minute appointment with a specialist, the cost would be £200-£250, £50 to see the GP is cheap.

20 minute appointment for £50 works out at £150/hour - local solicitors of no great distinction charge more than that.

I paid £75 to get my passport notarised by a solicitor, he didn't perform any kind of examination, no tests, no specialist skills, just the use of his name and his stamp for that.

POWN - Agreed. OP, your prospective employers are really taking you for a bit of a ride here. Fine, you need to be fit to work there, but they could offer a medical to the first successful applicant saying they have the job pending its results.

At what point did they ask for all this? I really hope they didn't get every applicant to fork out like that.