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 is cheap, both for the GPs professional time doing a non-NHS job and as the only contribution you are having to make to 2 days of work experience with a professional which will presumably be very useful for your son.

I would have expected to pay, and I'd pay up without a quibble and think it cheap at the price

As PPs have said, GPs are private businesses.

We had to pay a small fortune for all the medical forms required for medical school for one of our DC. We also had to pay for a DBS for one work experience placement, possibly the DBS for medical school. The one that shocked me was having to pay for required vaccinations though. It was recommended that students start the Hep B vaccination schedule before they go to med school so that they are fully protected when they start. The vaccinations are free through occupational health once they are medical students but you have to pay to have them at the GP or a private clinic.

GP surgeries were never privatised because they were never nationalised. They have been private businesses since the inception of the NHS in 1948.

Not in the duties of GP, so yes you'll have to pay.

Why do you believe you shouldn't pay?

It’s private work, not NHS. GPs are private businesses that have a contract with the NHS. They are paid to provide what is in the contract. A GP is not employed by the NHS as many people think.
Many things that people expect for free are simply not reimbursed via this contract. What is in the contract is what the government has agreed to pay GPs to do. Anything else you are not entitled to for free and as such is private work.

Well of course it's a money making excercise. The alternative is that the NHS, and therefore by default the taxpayer, funds all the additional admin related to every request that comes their way. It's a Health Service, there to provide healthcare. Not provide doctors notes for schools, vaccinations for holidays, reports for insurance companies, contersigning passport applicatons, references for jobs or whatever other admin the public wants to throw their way!

I used to sign passport forms for free, as a dentist. They take a lot of time because they have to be done by hand ( or did). Then, in addition, if they are followed up you might need to spend time on the phone answering questions.
When GPs started charging we followed suit. I rarely get asked nowadays because people don’t want to pay for your time.
I no longer do shot gun licences, just not prepared to take responsibility for any outcome.
But I have done naturalisation forms for colleagues and friends. But I won’t deviate from the rules.
It can be difficult explaining the charge but people forget that at work you are paid for each hour you work. I’m self employed so although it appears that you are paying for a service you are actually paying for my time within that charge. Even if I’m not doing a filling or a check up your form is taking up my time. If I spent several hours doing paperwork not associated with treatment I don’t get paid.

If you shop in Tescos do you accept that part of the cost of your groceries is paying for the wages of the assistant on the checkout and the running costs of the store ( lots more on top of that). The actual base cost is quite small.

No I get it. The GP’s time isn’t free and the time it will take to write the letter should have a charge.

All totally understandable, but this is info that is on the app & as someone pointed out, freely available as a printout. The main issue was the lack of upfront notice and printout offer. I’m also realising it’s probably unnecessary for what she’s doing & shes fallen into a normal job application for the hospital (other friends didn’t have to give vaccinations history as others here have pointed out, they shouldn’t be able to ask an under 18 for this anyway). Probably a non event, just frustrated with the sudden £30 text to my daughter - could have been handled better by the surgery

I thought they’d been trying to link IT between primary and secondary care for years, which is where the NHS app comes in. Seems like a good idea, but guess it’s not really working

GP practice has zero to do with the App- thats for your benefit

Pity that
a/ you cannot print off the app
b/whoever needs the info wont accept screenshot of the app.
The only way to get the info via GP is to pay for it

Pretty sure the patient summary has vaccinations included which you can ask for free.

Don't hold your breath! NHS IT is a shambles. When COVID hit I asked our practice pharmacist whether electronic prescription transfer would come on board any faster instead of printing out all those bits of paper, scribbling a signature and sending it to the pharmacy. She just laughed. When I retired in 2023 we were no further forward as the Scottish government won't sign it off despite the software being available. (Rant over)

Ha! I remember a very exciting (to me😂) conversation with DS’s paediatrician who was at the forefront of a project to digitise and link up all NHS records when DS was a baby. A few colleagues consulted on the project a few years later, many millions were spent. Baby DS is now a Dr himself and it still hasn’t happened.