Non-NHS Services

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:

• Certain travel vaccinations
• Private medical insurance reports
• Holiday cancellation claim forms

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.

I only need the Doctors signature!

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.

Why do we need to charge?

Non-NHS work takes our staff away form their normal NHS roles and adds extra hours to their day. Please remember that there are many steps and staff members involved in the process from your request for work to be done to the completed work returning to you.  The time taken to do these tasks is often underestimated. A simple letter or form will take a route through the organisation involving up to 5 members of staff (reception -> clinician -> scanner -> accounts -> back to reception).

We do not provide the followings:

• Covid Recovery Certificates
• Fitness to travel, fly, exercise, participate in events
• Sign passport or verify personal documents
• Capacity assessment

*When to charge for a private prescription:

• Prescription for prophylactic medication which a patient MAY need if they become ill when travelling abroad.
• Prescription for anti-malarial medications.
• If they are a private patient and have had a prescription issued during a private consultation – rarely happens now.