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GP’s refusal to write any more letters for appeals unless paid
Today we received a letter from one of the doctors surgeries, that due to the volume and the time it is now taking to complete letters for their patients for appeals, they are now going to ask for £25 per letter. They also stated that they knew that many of their patients would not be able to pay this amount out of their benefits.
GP’s complete a medical assessment/report for the DWP, does anyone know if this is compulsory? If so does anyone have any experience in asking the GP for a copy of this report to be sent to their patient as well as the DWP. so that at least we know what the GP has written before finding out in the DWP’s submission.
Accessing patient records can cost from £10
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1309.aspx?categoryid=68&subcategoryid=160
Charity application are also an option, but I can see that as a resource that wont last for long.
any assistance would be welcome
In my experience it depends on the GP in question. I wrote to a client’s GP just for simple confirmation of the effect of her condition and got a 3 page lecture from the GP about overheads, time , expenses etc etc. He then said that although our project was a charity his surgery wasnt, and if i still wanted a letter it would cost £40. It would have been easier to simply comply with my request than write a 3 page lecture.
First do no harm?? Hippocrates is spinning.
The GP NHS contract requires them to complete DWP reports, however no such requirement for the provision of reports for clients.
This may become an increasing problem. Locally we have a few surgeries who have a policy of always charging although most do not. It may be worth requesting a meeting with the practice manager / GPs to explain the significance of such evidence to the outcome of appeals & to discuss their policy of charging (or is this an individual GP within the surgery?). It may also be helpful to agree a format in which such requests might be made to both minimise the GPs time and ensure the response is relevant to the ESA/DLA etc criteria.
It may also be worth discussing this with your funders. With the demise of Legal Aid funds & introduction of WCA type assessments for PIP the need to request evidence from GPs may increase even further. It may be neccessary for advice agencies to seek specific funding to cover payment for such evidence in future.
At the end of the day payment for evidence may become more of a fact of advice life!
A judge has the power to direct that a ‘medical report’ is provided at the expense of the Tribunals Service. This is most likely to occur in practice following a decision to adjourn during a hearing for that purpose although an application can be made to a judge to direct such evidence is obtained in advance of a hearing (we’ve never had to do that - it would be interesting to know what the response might be). TS usually send a request for such evidence in a standardised format (similar to ESA113 used by DWP) so are not always much use in practice because they are not specific to the appelants particular condition or the relevant benefit criteria.
There must be a potential legal challenge if a tribunal refused such a request by the appelant / representative - equality of arms etc.
Don’t know if you’ve seen these threads, might be useful?
GPs refusing to give reports because they are employed by the Tribunal Service
GP Response for request for supporting evidence!!!! There is no hope for us
Gps are paid for writing reports ordered by DWP/Tribunals.
See http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/fees/fees-a-to-z
Gps are paid for writing reports ordered by DWP/Tribunals.
See http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/fees/fees-a-to-z
... and don’t we know that. We’ve seen several DWP appeal submissions which have included a GP’s Report AND a copy of the final sheet completed by the GP claiming their fee, complete with bank account details for payment.
I was on the BMA site yesterday in connection with another matter and came across this. It would seem that doctors have more flexibility in charging than before, albeit in Northern Ireland. However, I think this applies to the rest of the UK too.
On Friday, I received a letter from a GP refusing to write a medical report (for which we offered to pay!) on the basis that:
“we have been advised by the DWP and LMC that if the DWP want medical information, they will request it once the patient has made his or her appeal.”
We too are receiving similar feedback from some service users regarding the support available from their GPs here and are awaiting a response from our LMC….......