Doctor's note for foreign sportive

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Comments

  • term1te
    term1te Posts: 1,462
    topcattim wrote:
    robbo2011 wrote:
    topcattim wrote:
    Whatever, I took much pleasure in telling them I could have got the same service much cheaper elsewhere and that I wouldn't be using them.

    They were probably quite glad that you told them this. From their point of view, the last thing they want to be doing is spending time and resources on healthy people.
    Yes, that thought crossed my mind too! What struck me as peculiar though was the vast difference in cost/attitude both between my current surgery and what they used to do, and also between their cost and that of lots of other surgeries.

    Prevention, and early detection, are better than treating a condition when it is causing a problem. When else are healthy people going to go for a check up, and pay for the privilege? If the health systems spent more time and resource on nominally healthy people, then they would save much more in the long run.
    The Master
    The Moser
    The VN
  • MattPillinger
    MattPillinger Posts: 82
    I did the Etape last summer and needed one. Phoned up Dr's surgery and receptionist quoted me something like £50 for a health check to get is signed.

    So instead, I just booked an appointment with Dr (in a separate call couple of days later) went in and just asked Dr to sign it and then did it for free.

    Dr was probably happy because they had 10 minutes reserved for appointment and got me out in 60 seconds :-)
  • terry2708
    terry2708 Posts: 92
    Paid £10 from my doctors. If you do forge one it would effect your insurance?
  • taon24
    taon24 Posts: 185
    Doctors don't usually want to see healthy people, especially young healthy people who are statistically unlikely to be unwell (though exceptions do happen), it is much more cost efficient for a Nurse or HCA to do the basic health advice and for the GP to only see any abnormal cases.
    We don't have health checks, in general, for sport in this country, because it would be very expensive, and only makes a major difference to some of the very, very, rare cases where exercise makes a person less healthy. Exercise is usually beneficial to people and if health checks are a barrier to participation they are probably a bad idea.

    I suspect a forged note may affect your health insurance.

    When you ask the GP to sign you off as fit for the event, they are taking responsibility and a degree of liability for you. Some will view it as a public health part of the NHS (and it will then be free). Some will view it as the health insurance company trying to reduce it's liability by passing it onto the NHS (and will then likely charge). Others will view it as something they are taking personal liability for, and that if something bad happened you might be able to sue them. The GP then takes payment for the personal responsibility.

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