GP letter charge for NHS work experience 17 year old?

[RowAmer]

Hi. My 17 year old has been offered 2 days work shadowing a physiotherapist at a local NGS hospital. There have been a lot of forms to fill, including a vaccination form that they want signed off by a GP. We dropped this at the surgery, chased for it to be signed, and now they’re asking us for £30, for a ‘private referral letter’. Does this sound right, for a child, and an internal NHS communication (the info is also available on her NHS app)?

£30 for two days work experience doing something I assume your DC is interested in. Seems worth it.

Yes. GP letters for anything have a fee around that amount. Their time isn’t free.

I wouldn’t object to paying for the work experience, it’s that nobody told us of the charge and the info is available elsewhere (they often give us a printout when we go for vaccinations). It feels like a money making exercise (I would have less of an issue asking for a written reference for a private company, but this is internal NHS)

An nhs physio does not have a legitimate reason to check your child’s medical record for vaccinations. They would get in big trouble if they tried to do it as it would be an mis use of data. Of course they have to ask for your to provide that info for them.

The nhs is a huge organisation. Different nhs trusts are completely separate. It’s very unlikely your gp is connected to the physio at the hospital so it’s not ‘internal nhs’.

£30 sounds like it’s worth it for work experience. You have got very lucky that they are accepting under 18s at all.

I agree it's shit, what if you couldn't afford to pay? Poor working class families can't get their kids naice middle class work experience places?

It's not as if it's a letter to prove you're vaccinated to have a 2 week jolly abroad somewhere exotic.

Will they not accept a print out of the vaccination record , seems a bit ridiculous if not as it’s not as if the GP actually gave them all .

Yes, it sounds right. DD is entitled to a print out of the information for free but you are paying for the GPs time spent checking it & signing it. It’s classed as private work.

Thank you, that’s good info, I’ll see if the hospital will accept a printout.

A lot of 17 year olds have part time jobs but if noone in the family could afford £30 maybe they'd waive it if the person explained.

Sorry quoted the wrong person

lol. GP surgeries ARE private businesses. Where have you been? They were privatised ages ago.

I think if we’d known there was a charge, at the beginning, maybe we’d have been more receptive… However, my DD simply got a phone message saying ready for collection, there’s a £30 charge, which came as a bit of a shock. If someone had said, we can give you a printout, but will need to charge for this, at least we’d have had a choice. Now there’s a form that’s of no use to anyone else sitting at the GP surgery…

I’m realising this. Just makes a mockery of the NHS app, that has all this information already

GP will charge for letters for all sorts of things like this. Ours charged us same sum for one line confirming a detail needed by school for access arrangements. It was so short and to the point that I was most underwhelmed and we jokingly worked out how much each word cost

Letters like that are not NHS work ...but still take time to do for clinician and secretarial staff- then theres the paper, printer use, etc etc etc. All adds up.
Gp's charge for this. Its private work.

We printed and filled out the form, so just a signature, but yes, that is still work. It’s just odd they didn’t tell us, especially when I’ve had numerous referral letters and school forms with no charge, so guessing it’s a new policy

@RowAmer
My DD shadowed members of the physiotherapist team at our local hospital back in 2017.
I remember that we had to pay £30 but I think that was for insurance purposes. She was not asked about vaccinations for the work experience but she did need to get written confirmation of all vaccinations as part of enrolling on the physiotherapy degree course. The GP didn't charge for printing the list of vaccinations.

Of course they charge. It's non NHS work.

Most were never part of the NHS. Most GPs have been private businesses since the inception of the NHS.

Dd just got a print out from surgery for her hcp placement, no charge.

The £30 is for the private letter, not the work experience. It’s fairly standard for GPs to charge for non - NHS work.

Yea sounds normal. I think it's irrelevant what the letter is fur, it's the standard charge.

They aren't charging for the work experience they are charging for the letter. This is quite a usual charge

Yeah, standard practice, as others have said.

What you could do, is keep the letter (or a copy of), for any further work experience. I know you’ll still need to pay now but that would avoid any repeat charges down the line.

"Feels like a money making exercise"

Yes, as it should be. The way people view the NHS is ridiculous.