Non-NHS Services

Non-NHS Chargeable Services

***Payment for non-NHS services will be required in advance at time of request/ booking***

Fees for Non NHS services from 1^st October 2021

If you request work that is not provided for under the terms of the NHS Primary Care Services contract, your GP may be happy to undertake such work for you, but, as this is a private service, you will incur a charge for completion of your request and on some occasions, they may refuse to action the request. Our priority is NHS work.

Please post your request in writing into our post box enclosing your name, date of birth, address and phone number detailing all your requirements, including any forms you wish to be completed.

Our team will contact you BEFORE the work is done to confirm that your GP is able to complete the work requested and inform you of the charge payable.

If you wish to proceed, we will usually commit to complete the work that you have requested within 30 days from date of payment.

Out team will contact you as soon as your request is ready for collection.

PLEASE NOTE that we can ONLY accept payments by card or via BACS (Your name and Date of Birth as reference).

Strand Medical

Lloyds TSB plc

30-99-93

03316010

Fees For Non-NHS Service

• Private Letter – Letter of support/ To Whom It May Concern £30.00

Alternatively, you can use online medical records access or request a patient medical summary free of charge.

• Simple form completion (up to 3 pages) £40.00
• Comprehensive Reports and Forms – At Practices discretion to complete – charge TBC
• HGV & TAXI Medical (30 minutes) £150.00

Please note you will need an eye test prior to your appointment.

The fees charged are based on the British Medical Association (BMA) suggested scales and are reviewed annually.

Fees – Your Questions Answered

Why does my doctor charge fees?

When your doctor is asked to give medical information about you in the form of a report, letter or certificate, the request kick starts a series of processes.

This takes time and is not always straightforward or simple to complete. Some of the information is not available easily and will mean the doctor has to sort and select the right information for the request.

The doctor also must establish who is funding this work and if it is not part of their NHS work, agree a fee for this.

Surely the work is paid for by the NHS?

Many patients see their doctor as the embodiment of the NHS and all that it provides – free care at the point of delivery. However not all work doctors are asked to do is paid for by the NHS and many GPs are self-employed.

This means they must cover their time and costs – staff, buildings, heating, lighting, etc – in the same way as any small business. The NHS only pays for NHS work, any work outside of the NHS must be funded by other means and this is why fees are charged.

Why does it take so long?

Your doctor receives large amounts of request and which is often to do with whether your general health allows you to do something e.g. to work, receive benefits, drive, play sport, attend school, own a house, a firearm or it is for insurance, court or other medico-legal reasons.

All requests will vary in complexity, volume and consistency ranging from signing a certificate which can take minutes, to an in-depth report with an examination that can take hours.

What your doctor is signing

When your doctor signs a certificate or completes a report, it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true.

In order to complete even the simplest of forms, they may have to check your entire medical record (some of which may not be accessible on a computer or on site).

Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the Police.

Why does my doctor seem reluctant or say no to this request?

Your doctor is inundated with work. They have to balance their time with treating the sick, keeping their practice afloat and making sure they are doing all of this safely and within their professional duties as a doctor.

With certain exceptions written within their contract, doctors do not have to carry out non-NHS work. However, many choose to for the benefit of you and other families they treat.

Where a doctor chooses to undertake the work, we advise them to inform and always agree a fee in advance of undertaking work.

Should their volume of work prove to be greater or more complex than expected, the doctor will contact you to discuss how to proceed.

What can I do to help?

Not all documents need a signature by a doctor and can be done by other professionals. Please check the form and accompanying guidance as you may get a quicker response that way.

If you have several forms requiring completion, present them all at once and ask your doctor if he or she is prepared to complete them at the same time to speed up the process.

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, and this will cost more.

Don’t book an appointment with your doctor to complete forms without checking with your doctor’s Medical Secretaries.

Passport Signing

The Identity and Passport Service has changed its policy on identity issues and we have been advised that they will no longer accept a declaration from GP surgeries that an applicant is “a patient” as sufficient proof of the counter-signatory knowing the applicant. For this reason, we will no longer countersign applications for a passport. There is a wide range of people who can now do this for you.

For more information and a list of those eligible to sign applications and photos please go to https://www.gov.uk/who-can-sign-passport-driving-licence-applications