Certain services we provide are not covered by the NHS and are therefore deemed to be ‘Private Services’ you will be asked to pay a fee for these. Please note that our NHS service take priority over the provision of these private services and private does not mean faster.
You will be made aware when dropping in your request, the expected timeline of completion, which is currently 8 – 10 weeks. We will contact you when ready for collection.
Payment will need to be received before work commences. Fees can be paid by BACS or bank card at Silverdale site. We are happy to provide a receipt.
Currently we are not providing the following private services:
- Fit to Fly/Travel
- Fit to complete marathons & extreme sports/skydiving etc
- Any transport medicals, including HGV, taxi etc
- Gun licenses
- Passport/Driving Licence verification
| Private sick note | £30 |
| TWIMC Letter | £40 |
| Holiday claim form | £80 |
| General Practitioners reports | £80 |
If you are unsure, please contact reception for guidance. We recommend using your NHS App to access your medical records and for copies of notes.
MENTAL CAPACITY ASSESSMENTS
GPs are often asked to make Mental Capacity Assessments for patients. These assessments can be requested for a variety of different reasons. As GPs it is an essential part of our role that we are able to perform capacity assessments which relate to decisions regarding medical investigations, treatment and care. However capacity assessments relating to overall welfare, finances and property are often more complex and sit outside our expertise.
The level of risk and responsibility linked to capacity assessments can be extremely high. Decisions such as whether someone’s house is sold or how their life savings are spent can depend on capacity assessments. It is therefore essential that adequate time and attention is dedicated to these assessments. It is also essential that those carrying out these assessments for legal purposes are highly trained and experienced in this area.
Legal capacity assessments do not fall within the NHS duties of GPs. Some GPs do agree to perform these assessments privately at a fee, but many others feel the risks of doing so are too high or that the time needed to perform an adequate assessment is not available to them. There are other professionals who can perform mental capacity assessments including solicitors and psychiatrist.
As a surgery we do not feel we have the capacity to offer Mental Capacity Assessments for legal purposes for our patients. To do so would require significant resources being diverted from our core duties as a health care provider. It would also pose a significant legal and financial risk to our GPs. We feel there are other professionals available with more appropriate training, legal protection and expertise who can perform these assessments.
We realise that this practice policy may cause some inconvenience to our patients but hope you can understand that our priority must be to our core NHS duties as a health care provider.