Private gynaeo help - follow up consult fee contest

sazpab

I am wondering if I can get some advice on where I stand contesting an invoice I have been sent regarding a follow up telephone consult I had with a private gynaeocologist.

After many months of frustration with NHS, I paid £240 for an initial in-person consultation that lasted approx 15 minutes at the practice. She was helpful in the consult and suggested things I could do regarding suspected endometriosis, and also to go and get a blood test from my GP and send her the results. This I did, and I was told by her secretary to book in a follow up phone call to discuss the results I had sent her and that it would cost £150.

I assumed from this that there would be something in my blood test results that warranted a discussion and that further advice would be offered. In the follow up 12 minute phone call I was told that my blood tests are normal and then told the same advice I was given in the initial consult with nothing extra. The phone call was 12 minutes simply because I was trying to garner something new from her, which didn't come.

I have just been sent the invoice 2 weeks later.

I begrudge paying an extra £150 for no further advice and feel this was just a way to extract further money from me. I have no issues paying £150 for a service if I actually receive advice from it, and I don't even have an issue paying a small fee for her time, but I received nothing helpful from the call that she couldn't have said in a quick 1 minute email - "Test results normal, no further action." It's frustrating when I am struggling with my health physically and I feel taken advantage of.

Where do I stand with this?

tacpot12

sazpab said:

...

I assumed from this that there would be something in my blood test results that warranted a discussion and that further advice would be offered.
...

I think this is the problem. You assumed that there would be something to discuss and agreed to pay £150 on the basis that their might well be something in your blood results that would need a discussion, but there was not, so you agreement to pay £150 for a follow-on consultation was not necessary, but neither you nor the GP knew this until the results came back. 

So while I think that you have not had good value, I don't think you have a legal basis for a refund. if you want a proper legal opinion on this, and you have home insurance, you may find that you have LegalExpenses Cover as part of the policy. If you do, you can call the Legal Helpline for legal advice. 

If I were you, I would write to the GP and complain and say that the potential for there to be nothing to discuss was not explained to you, and that you feel that they should not charge for a follow-on consultation unless there is something to consult upon. Looking at bloodtest results and deciding that there is nothing to consult upon is a service that should perhaps be paid for, but given the cost of the initial consultation, I would have expected that the GP would do this for free and only charge the follow-on fee if the actually needed to speak to you.  

sazpab

tacpot12 said:

sazpab said:

...

I assumed from this that there would be something in my blood test results that warranted a discussion and that further advice would be offered.
...

I think this is the problem. You assumed that there would be something to discuss and agreed to pay £150 on the basis that their might well be something in your blood results that would need a discussion, but there was not, so you agreement to pay £150 for a follow-on consultation was not necessary, but neither you nor the GP knew this until the results came back. 

So while I think that you have not had good value, I don't think you have a legal basis for a refund. if you want a proper legal opinion on this, and you have home insurance, you may find that you have LegalExpenses Cover as part of the policy. If you do, you can call the Legal Helpline for legal advice. 

If I were you, I would write to the GP and complain and say that the potential for there to be nothing to discuss was not explained to you, and that you feel that they should not charge for a follow-on consultation unless there is something to consult upon. Looking at bloodtest results and deciding that there is nothing to consult upon is a service that should perhaps be paid for, but given the cost of the initial consultation, I would have expected that the GP would do this for free and only charge the follow-on fee if the actually needed to speak to you.  

Hiya, I agree. My issue is that they saw my blood test results via e-mail before they said to book a phone consult and told me the fee for discussing them. So upon seeing them prior to the phone call and noting there was nothing to discuss, they still decided to go ahead so it feels like it was purely for money.

I will message them and explain my side but as you said, legally I don't think I have a stand. Just bad value. Thanks for your response.

DullGreyGuy

sazpab said:

tacpot12 said:

sazpab said:

...

I assumed from this that there would be something in my blood test results that warranted a discussion and that further advice would be offered.
...

I think this is the problem. You assumed that there would be something to discuss and agreed to pay £150 on the basis that their might well be something in your blood results that would need a discussion, but there was not, so you agreement to pay £150 for a follow-on consultation was not necessary, but neither you nor the GP knew this until the results came back. 

So while I think that you have not had good value, I don't think you have a legal basis for a refund. if you want a proper legal opinion on this, and you have home insurance, you may find that you have LegalExpenses Cover as part of the policy. If you do, you can call the Legal Helpline for legal advice. 

If I were you, I would write to the GP and complain and say that the potential for there to be nothing to discuss was not explained to you, and that you feel that they should not charge for a follow-on consultation unless there is something to consult upon. Looking at bloodtest results and deciding that there is nothing to consult upon is a service that should perhaps be paid for, but given the cost of the initial consultation, I would have expected that the GP would do this for free and only charge the follow-on fee if the actually needed to speak to you.  

Hiya, I agree. My issue is that they saw my blood test results via e-mail before they said to book a phone consult and told me the fee for discussing them. So upon seeing them prior to the phone call and noting there was nothing to discuss, they still decided to go ahead so it feels like it was purely for money.

I will message them and explain my side but as you said, legally I don't think I have a stand. Just bad value. Thanks for your response.

The secretary received them... doesn't mean the doctor has seen them or opined on them. 

Thankfully my private doctors are paid for by my insurance so I have lest invested in what they choose to bill. In most cases its fairly obvious the doctor hasn't read the results until the followup appointment but then we are often talking about seeing the doctor on the Monday, MRI on Wednesday, results and followup on the Friday. 

Ultimately the doctor is selling their time and time spent on you, even if its just chewing the fat, is time they cannot spend with another patient.  Many patients also just "disappear", they have an appointment, maybe do some tests that come back clear and just decide not to have a followup appointment... the Dr isn't going to want to spend a lot of time/effort for a patient they won't ever see again. 

If you want to see a really bad example though, there was a case a while back with a Lawyer rather than Doctor and they were surprised how much the bill was. Turns out the engagement was over Xmas and the person had been sending their solicitor emails wishing them a nice Xmas and asking what they're doing for the holidays etc and the solicitor had charged £6 per email received and £6-£12 for each reply they'd sent.

Mark_d

It is standard practice that the consultant's secretary books you in for a follow-up.  We don't know if the consultant had looked at the test results before you committed to the follow-up appointment.

In any case, you need to consultant to analyse the test results and take the time to explain their analysis/answer any questions you have.  You have to pay the fee regardless of how simple of complex the consultant's message is.  That's just the way it works.

silvercar

The consultant is entitled to be paid for their time in looking at the results and discussing them with you.

You could have asked for your blood test results from your GP before making a decision to send the test results back to the consultant  for their opinion.

The real failure here is that the GP only agreed to do the blood tests after prompting from the consultant.