have just been charged £20.50 for a doctors signature!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[changednametoprotecttheinnocen]

I have just asked my gp for a referal for my private insurance and was charged £20.50 for her signature..am I the only one who thinks this is disgusting!!! I thought it would be a good thing not to drain the NHS!!V cross..can you tell????

I think that is poor service. You are doing her a favour by going private because her budget doesn't have to pay for you to get the treatment on the NHS.

there aren't many nhs osteopaths. Think there are 3 in the whole of Leeds!

you have such a daily mail attitude towards this i suspect this is a wind up - or you are just stupid. why not post under your own name, I'm curious.

I think you can get osteopathy on nhs if you ask probably big wait tho

I dont read the daily mail and it is not a wind up

that's true. What is so controversial about this to change your name?
I agree the fee is a bit steep. But signing the form is not part of what your GP is paid to do so it should have a small fee.

v weedy to change name

The point I am making is why is it all the people I know that are basically not really sick but drain the nhs get whatever they want and I never go and ask for one simple signature thatbeleive me I would not have gone for if I could get around it get penalised!
Is that a daily mail attitude?

The point I am making is why is it all the people I know that are basically not really sick but drain the nhs get whatever they want and I never go and ask for one simple signature thatbeleive me I would not have gone for if I could get around it get penalised!
Is that a daily mail attitude?

I'm not a GP but a hospital doctor, who has been asked to work an extra afternoon this week. For this I will get in hand £42.I pay my childminder £30 (for 7 hours), leaving me with £12.
OK, pg with number 3. Once I have 3 children I would have to pay the childminder £50. Means I have to actually pay £8 to work an extra afternoon. Brilliant. Now, if they ever ask me to sing a form, do you think I would charge for it????

but they are choosing to go to the doctor for health care and that is their right.
You are asking to GP to do something beyond his/her job and so you have to pay a charge for it.

It's fair enough to charge IMO. Although mine only charges £10 and I just posted him the form with a covering letter and SSAE.

hurrah for alsochangedmyname - to show you just how much of a money spinning game medicine is!!!

but if you are ill they don't charge for their signature on a prescription.

dunno. i avoid the GP like the plague.

Isn't 7 hours a whole day's woth of childminding ?

Re the signature charge, the only time we have used our private healthcare my dh consulted the G.P. as if he was N.H.S. and then after being told he would be referred to the hospital and put on a waiting list of approx xx months he then asked if it made any difference that he had private healthcare cover. No charge, the letter was simply sent to the same surgeon at the private hospital address instead of the N.H.S. hospital address.

Probably not the same for osteopathy, can you get that on the N.H.S. ?

MMT - I have to make a donation to the school fund for having the deputy head sign DDs passport.

also hurrah for alsochangedmyname and bundle
and, OP - I assume, if you were knocked down in the street you wouldn't say no to a NHS ambulance taking you to the NHS A&E dept?

I have no problem with private health care - I have it myself and have used it for osteopathy. However, the GPs job is to see NHS patients and provide appropriate treatment not to sign letters to allow us private patients to, effectively, queue jump. Which is what we do when we go to see a private osteopath rather than wait for a rare-as-hens-teeth NHS one.

The surgery your GP works from will probably have a list of charges that they seek for admin related items.
The NHS is supposed to provide free healthcare. Sorry you feel so aggrieved changeyrname... but I don't think it is unreasonable and certainly not disgusting.

mmt, what about making a new rule just not to do them? there's a much larger list of people who are "allowed" to sign them these days..