Some services provided are not covered under our contract with the NHS and therefore attract charges. Examples include the following:

• Medicals for pre-employment, sports (not scuba diving) and DVLA requirements (HGV, PSV etc.)
• Insurance claim forms
• Prescriptions for taking medication abroad
• Private sick notes
• Vaccination certificates
• Supporting letters. Please note that for many council and government purposes, the agency involved will contact us directly should they need any medical information, for example the blue badge scheme, or benefits applications. In these cases, extra supporting letters from us will be of no use, and will not routinely be done.

The fees charged are based on the British Medical Association (BMA) suggested scales and our reception staff will be happy to advise you about them along with appointment availability.

For letters, you will be given a form to complete with details of the request and the information you think should be included.

Click HERE for our list of charges for non NHS work.

Why do I have to pay for letters?

The NHS provides medical care, and writing such letters for patients is not covered by the NHS contract. This means that the GP has to do this work in their own time and the cost of this has to recuperated from the requesting party.

Whilst a letter may seem like a simple thing, the cost involved to produce it includes things like the cost of the premises, secretarial and reception time, printer consumables, and of course the doctors time. It is no different to asking for a letter from a lawyer or accountant.

The GP takes full professional responsibility for whatever is written in the letter, therefore to put their signature to a letter, a GP has to verify to the best of their ability that it is true and accurate. This could mean trawling though the entire medical notes for a patient, so you can see how even a one line letter could sometimes take 20 minutes or more to write and verify.

I need the letter as soon as possible. Why do I need to wait?

A doctors main role is to provide medical services to our patients. Writing such letters has to be done the GP’s own time when they are not seeing patients or dealing with clinical work. This means that letters cannot be done urgently, and sometimes take longer depending on how busy the doctor is. We aim to have all letter requests completed within six weeks.