GP wants to charge to sign a form!

susancs

Our NHS G.P. charges £50 for a signature on a medical form and others in our areas, I have heard charge £70-£100, so £15 is very reasonable IMO.

bluenoseam

I think mine is a sliding scale between a signature for a form (necessary), passport applications (higher as it's not necessary!) & other things. If my memory serves me right the last time I saw it the charge for signing forms was £20 but that was 5-6 years ago.

Hermia

Poppie68 wrote: »

GP's are asked to complete forms and sign others on a daily basis, they are entitled to charge for non NHS work.

Exactly. The doctor my mum worked for got numerous requests like this daily. If he had done them for free he would have had so many he would have been taking them home to do in the evening.

michelle09

One potential way around it - do you know any Doctors personally? Not sure if it would be acceptable for your Dad, but with some forms it just has to be a Doctor rather than your Doctor specifically.

Also - people pay their Doctors to sign passport applications?

jackyann

Of course, it isn't "just a signature", it's the time spent checking the notes & the form.
As a community nurse, I got asked to sign a lot of forms! Some were definitely part of my job - that was fine; in principle I didn't mind signing some others. However, as a NHS employee, I had no means of charging, and as my workload became increasingly difficult to manage, I had to decline to sign any form that was not specifically part of my duty.
Already working unpaid overtime to care for my caseload, it seemed ridiculous to spend even more time signing forms.

DomRavioli

michelle09 wrote: »

One potential way around it - do you know any Doctors personally? Not sure if it would be acceptable for your Dad, but with some forms it just has to be a Doctor rather than your Doctor specifically.

Also - people pay their Doctors to sign passport applications?

It has to be a qualified healthcare professional with access to up to date notes, so yes, his own GP practice have to deal with it. To get someone else to do so could and has been seen as fraud.

Hermia

michelle09 wrote: »

One potential way around it - do you know any Doctors personally? Not sure if it would be acceptable for your Dad, but with some forms it just has to be a Doctor rather than your Doctor specifically.

Also - people pay their Doctors to sign passport applications?

Yes, it is very common. You need a professional or someone in a position of authority (I think there is a list of accepted people on the passport website) to sign a passport. A lot of people don't have friends/family in these sorts of positions.

jackyann

Hermia wrote: »

Yes, it is very common. You need a professional or someone in a position of authority (I think there is a list of accepted people on the passport website) to sign a passport. A lot of people don't have friends/family in these sorts of positions.

Some years ago, they did "open up" the list of acceptable people because it was causing quite a lot of problems. Really, anyone who has some sort of position in the community, and something to lose by being dishonest.
I have asked teachers (a donation to school funds); small business owners (donation to favourite charity) and a local councillor (bottle of wine). My mum, a Guide Leader, signed passports in return for a small donation to funds.

lika_86

Given the saving by not paying council tax, £15 really isn't a lot to quibble over.

Bryando

I need to get letters for the uni detailing times when I am unable to perform. 9 times out of 10 they do not charge me. If I get charged it is always £15.

A surgery near me refuses as policy to sign ANYTHING and goes on to say the DWP etc have got procedures in place to obtain information. Would have no idea if my surgery refused as the uni relies on these letters. Even the university said they are concerned as a few have declined their request for information. Personally I agree they should stop all these letters as it must add to their workload greatly esp since the DWP decided to attack disabled people.