Non-NHS Services and Extreme Sports Medicals

Please be aware – any chargeable forms and/or letters will need to be paid for before the GP is able to complete them.

The NHS provides healthcare to most people free of charge. There are exceptions; prescription charges for example have existed in England since 1951. The doctors and healthcare team however are required to make a charge for all services that fall outside of the NHS contract. The services which are not NHS funded tend to fall into two categories as follows

Those where GPs can charge their NHS patients

• private sick notes
• some vaccination services such as those required for foreign travel
• insurance and holiday cancellation forms
• paternity testing
• fitness to travel certificates
• private prescriptions and dispensing
• letters and forms regarding fitness to attend some event
• school fees insurance claims

Those where GPs can charge other institutions / organisations:

• insurance proposal medical report forms
• employers requesting vaccination of employees for occupational health reasons
• adoption and fostering reports and forms
• various medical reports including employment medicals
• reports for the Dept of Work & pensions (eg. Attendance Allowance or Disability Living allowance forms etc)
• coroners reports
• cremation forms

Our Non NHS fees are generally in line with BMA national guidelines and must be paid up front before any work is undertaken.

Please note we do not undertake the following:

Firearms Certificates

Extreme Sport Medicals (eg. marathons, diving, skydiving, parachuting, bungee jumping etc.)

Countersigning Passport Applications

Extreme Sports and Pilot License Medical Assessments

Albany Surgery is not able to provide pilot licence medical assessments or GP letters for participation in activities which fall under the extreme sports category, such as marathons, diving, skydiving, parachuting, bungee jumping, etc.

This is a private service and is above the standard NHS requirements for our practice, therefore our GPs have collectively decided that we cannot provide this service to our patients due to the medical legal implications and risk involved. Should a GP make an incorrect decision regarding a patient’s health and/or ability to fulfil what is required for a pilot licence/an activity in the extreme sports category, the GP in question would not be covered by medical indemnity.

We are able to provide you with a copy of your full medical history free of charge. This information can be also be accessed online via our Patient Online Service. Please contact the surgery for further details on how to register, if you would like to know more.

Alternatively, you may wish to contact a private medical assessment provider.

Please contact the aviation authority or event organiser for further advice.