Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that patients in NHS Accident and Emergency waiting rooms are frequently monitored by clinicians.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients who attend emergency departments are triaged on arrival. This is a clinical assessment, often carried out by a registered nurse, to prioritise patients based on the urgency of their care. All National Health Service providers must have systems in place to appropriately manage clinical priority and patient safety within their emergency departments.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the practice of GP surgeries charging fees to patients for (a) signed certificates, (b) reports and (c) medical letters.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For general practices (GPs), there are some medical evidence letters, certificates, or reports that GPs may charge for, and other certificates that they must not charge patients for. The legislation that sets this out is the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Regulations, which form the basis of the GP Contract with the National Health Service. There is no statutory limit to the level of such fees, as this is outside of core NHS work. However, we would expect the practice to charge a reasonable sum appropriate for the workload involved.
The Professional Fees Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) suggests guideline fees for such services to help doctors set their own professional fees. However, these fees are guidelines only, not recommendations, and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates suggested. Where doctors intend to charge for services to patients, the BMA advises them to forewarn patients at the earliest opportunity of the likely level of fees.