Medical Certificates: Fees and Charges

(asked on 26th October 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that GPs do not charge people with mental health conditions for the provision of a doctor's note.


Answered by
 Portrait
David Mowat
This question was answered on 3rd November 2016

General practitioners (GPs) are independent contractors who hold contracts with NHS England to provide primary medical services for the National Health Service. Under the terms of their contract, GPs are required to provide certain medical reports or complete certain forms, such as those required to support a claim for incapacity benefit, free of charge to their registered patients.

Outside of contractual requirements, GPs also provide a variety of other services which successive governments have regarded as private matters between the patient and the GP providing these services. In such cases, decisions on whether to charge a fee and the level of the fee charged are at the GP’s discretion. Where GPs intend to charge for services to patients, the British Medical Association advises them to forewarn patients, at the earliest opportunity, of the likely level of fees.

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