Some services provided are not covered under our contract with the NHS and therefore attract charges. Examples include the following:
- Medical for driving requirements & pre-employment
- Insurance claim forms
- Private sick notes
- Holiday cancellation forms
Time spent completing forms and preparing reports generally has to be done by our GPs outside their normal working hours, i.e. in the evenings and at weekends, due to their heavy NHS workload. We will try our hardest to turn around private work as efficiently as possible, but we cannot guarantee it will always be done as quickly as the patient hopes. You should expect private work to take up to 4 weeks to complete and return. Read more about fee charges here.
In order to be fair to all patients there are no exceptions to charges. Whilst we understand the financial pressures patients may be experiencing, we receive a large volume of these requests, and the fees are set based on the time it takes the GP to complete the work.
Our GPs do not provide:
-Letters or certificates to declare you fit to participate in sporting events
-Letters or certificates to declare you fit to participate in high-risk activities
-Diving medicals/ fitness to dive assessments.
-Counter signing for passport applications.
-Private blood tests or private consultations.
These types of private assessment require specialist knowledge and expertise that falls outside the general practice remit. Issuing certificates may expose the GP and the surgery to potential legal risks, including vicarious liability, if an adverse event occurred. It is therefore our policy not to provide these assessments. We recommend that they are undertaken by professionals with specialist expertise in these fields.
This list is not exhaustive; we may be able to offer some services that are not listed- please complete on online admin consultation through our website with your request and we will respond to let you know if we can complete the work, the fee applicable and the turnaround time expected.
We are under no obligation to take on private work and we may decline to undertake certain work. Please note we do not provide any private services to patients who are not registered with us.