The National Health Service provides most health care to most people free of charge, but there are exceptions: prescription charges still exist in England and there are a number of other services for which fees are charged. Sometimes the charge is made to cover some of the cost of treatment, e.g. dental fees. In other cases it is because the service is not covered by the NHS, e.g. medical reports for insurance companies, claim forms for referral for private care, letters and forms which require the doctor to review the patient’s medical records, etc.
Examples of non-NHS services are:
- Private medical insurance reports (starting from £25)
- Holiday cancellation claim forms (starting from £30)
- For whom it may concern letter (starting from £30)
How long does it take?
We aim to complete all types of medical form with 14 – 28 working days depending on the complexity of the form. Please do not expect your GP to process forms overnight. Urgent requests may mean that a doctor has to make special arrangements to process the form quickly.
Time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from the medical care of his or her patients.
Most GPs have a very heavy workload and paperwork takes up an increasing amount of their time. In addition non-NHS work must be undertaken outside of NHS contracted time.
When doctors sign a certificate or complete a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true. Therefore, in order to complete even the simplest of forms, the doctor needs to check the patient’s medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor, with the General Medical Council or even the Police. The charge reflects either the time required to check information and/or the degree of responsibility in signing the document.
For a full list of non-NHS document fees, please contact the surgery.