Due to the increased demand on services in the NHS, the turnaround for non-NHS administrative work such as private letters and medical reports is at least 2 weeks and may be 4 weeks for completion. Please bear with our staff who are trying their best to complete this paperwork in a timely manner.

The NHS does not pay for some of the services we provide. These include private sick notes, insurance forms, holiday cancellation forms, medical reports, fitness to travel certificates, firearms licencing, private prescriptions, passport signing and some vaccination services. Our fees for these services, which are in line with BMA approved national guidelines, are displayed in the surgery.

Private and Professional Fees – June 2024

Please contact Reception if more information is required.

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Medical letters and reports

Requests for medical letters and reports

Doctors often receive requests for medical letters and reports to support a number of applications or requests to the local authority, schools and other non-NHS services. Many of these request fall outside of the role and responsibilities of your Doctor and impact on the time and resources available to us to run the practice.

In many cases we may refer you back to the person or organisation who has asked you to contact your GP. This is because they can often accept information directly from the patient and many requests can be resolved through further dialogue. There may be some occasions when a report from your Doctor is still required. This will be factual report and subject to your written consent. As these reports are not covered by the NHS a private fee will apply (priced on completion).

The following guidance may help you resolve some of your requests.

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Department of Work and Pensions Appeals

Appeals against Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) decisions, including PIP (Personal Independent Payments), are becoming more common. This work falls outside of your Doctor’s contracted work. It can be very time consuming and patients often book appointments to discuss this.

Patients appealing against DWP decisions are asked to respond to the DWP stating what evidence in the original decision they disagree with. They are also advised to provide medical evidence to support their comments. As this work falls outside of the GP contracted work, the patient should respond directly to the DWP. If the DWP requests further information from your Doctor they will contact us directly.

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Social Housing Requests

Information in support of an application based on health grounds should be supplied by the patient or applicant using a form provided by the Housing Department (self- assessment). This should not require any input from your Doctor or the practice.

Only if additional information is required, will the Housing Department Medical Officer need to obtain it from the your Doctor using a standard Form and following written consent from the patient. The Medical Officer should seek information which is only available to the GP, eg: the diagnosis; severity of the illness; medication; likely effect of appropriate rehousing.

A fee is payable when the Housing Department requests a report from your doctor.

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School Sickness Absence Requests

Increasingly, GPs receive requests from parents who have been misdirected by their school or the local education authority to provide medical certificates, letters or evidence to present to a school to verify a pupil’s absence from school due to illness or to excuse them from exams or other activities.

GPs do not provide short term sickness certification for periods of less than 7 days. A parent’s explanation of the absence is generally sufficient.

GPs are unable to issue medical certificates for longer periods of sickness absence unless the patient was seen by the GP at the time of the illness.

GPs are not obliged to provide a view on a pupil who has missed a higher than average (10%) number of school days. It is the responsibility of the parent and school to ensure that this absence is legitimate. GP input into this process should not be necessary.

GPs are not obliged to provide sickness certification for pupils who may miss an external examination (eg, GCSEs or A levels).

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Patients with Dental Problems

Patients often attend GP practices because they have a dental problem. GPs are not able to fully assess and treat dental problems. Treating patients with dental problems is not a GP responsibility, even if a patient is not registered with a dentist because:

1. GPs are not trained to deal with dental issues, and
2. Dental treatment is not a contractual requirement.

If a patient presents with a toothache or other dental issue they should be advised to contact their local dentist or access 111 if their usual dental surgery is closed or they are not registered with a dentist. The practice team should know of local in-hours and out-of-hours dental services that manage urgent and emergency dental conditions so that they can direct patients accordingly. This includes:

• NHS website
• NHS 111

We are seeing an increasing number of requests to continue prescribing medications initiated by private consultants.

This is often appropriate and we are usually happy to continue prescribing medications and will add these to your repeat medication list.

However, there are a small number of drugs that have ongoing safety implications and require more monitoring and access to specialist advice. This includes medication prescribed to treat ADHD and long term inflammatory conditions. When these drugs are recommended by NHS consultants, there is a commissioned ‘shared care agreement’ which is a contact between the hospital and GP practice to ensure safe prescribing of these medications.

This pathway does not exist in the private sector and therefore we do not feel it is safe for us to prescribe these medications for you.

Your consultant should be able to provide ongoing private prescriptions or if you would like, we can refer you to an NHS service. However, we will not be able to provide prescriptions until you have been seen by an NHS consultant. This applies to requests for new medications only.