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, private prescriptions and some vaccination services. Please enquire for prices, these are subject to change.
Why am I being charged?
Forms often need to be filled out by a Doctor for a variety of reasons e.g. occupational, social, holidays, insurance claims, etc. The NHS does not provide any payment to cover the cost of these, so Doctors choose to do this work and charge a fee to cover their time and the administrative workload, and the medical indemnity required to do this work for patients.
The fee covers the time, medical opinion and responsibility we take on when we fill out forms, provide letters and complete reports. We take responsibility for the information being complete and accurate.
Isn’t it just a quick signature?
In short – no. Virtually all forms require us to, at the very least examine your notes (both paper and electronic) to make sure we are including and taking into account all your past medical history and this can take time – even if you do not have much in your medical history, there is often more in your medical notes than you realise. Even where we are just providing a letter with a couple of lines to say e.g. fit to travel – we have done a thorough review of your notes to know it is safe to say this.
Why does it take so long to get my letter/form done?
As above – it’s not just a ‘quick signature’. We need to review your notes and not all Doctors work all days. Also please bear in mind we have 3800 patients. We are likely to have quite a lot of forms to fill out, not to mention our usual duties of caring for patients. We will get it done as soon as we can but this may take time.
Are there any exceptions?
Yes – we only provide the services detailed on our list of fees.
How/when should I pay?
We accept payment by Cash or cheque. Payment is required in some cases before we complete the required work or in some cases when you come to collect it. A list of our private/non-NHS fees are displayed in the waiting room and available upon request please note these prices are subject to change.