Playbook, medical practice
Which things at a practice have a price at all
Most of what a practice does is commissioned, so a fee list here covers the exceptions rather than the catalogue: the driver medical, the letter an employer wants, the form a holiday company insists on, the report an insurer asked for. Patients cannot tell which side of that line their request falls on. The practice can.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The default at a practice is that there is no charge, which inverts the usual pricing page: what is needed is a short list of the work sitting outside what is commissioned, not a price against everything.
- Fees for that work are set by the practice rather than nationally, so a patient quoting a figure they read somewhere has read another practice's figure, and the material has to be visibly this practice's own.
- The prescription charge and the exemption arrangements are set elsewhere and collected at the pharmacy, so a patient asking the surgery about it has arrived at the wrong building with a reasonable question.
- Work outside the commissioned list is written in a clinician's administrative time rather than in a clinic, which is why it carries both a fee and a turnaround, and a fee published without the turnaround produces a chasing call a week later.
How it arrives
- how much is a private sick note
- what do you charge for a driver medical
- do i have to pay for a letter for my landlord
- how much is a prescription
- are travel jabs free
- how much to fill in an insurance form
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your fee list for non commissioned work, with turnarounds | Each item, the fee, and how long it takes, on the same line. The two belong together because the patient is deciding whether to ask at all, and the wait matters as much as the money. |
|---|---|
| The boundary itself, stated in a sentence | Which work is free and which is not, said outright rather than left to be inferred from what is missing off the list. This is the sentence patients most need and fee pages most often imply. |
| How travel vaccination charging splits | Which vaccines are commissioned and which are paid for, with the fees. A family prices this before it books anything, so leaving it off the page loses the appointment rather than the argument. |
| The prescription charge and exemption, with the route | Written as something set elsewhere and paid at the pharmacy, with where to read about exemption, so the assistant does not answer as though the practice set the figure or collects it. |
The reply
Most appointments here carry no charge. There is a fee for work outside what we are commissioned to do, such as a driver medical, a private letter or an insurance form, and each is listed with its price and how long it takes on our fees page [1]. Travel vaccinations are partly one and partly the other, and that split is on the same page [2]. The prescription charge is set nationally and paid at the pharmacy rather than here. I cannot tell you whether anything applies to you personally.
It states the default before the exceptions, because the worry underneath the question is usually whether seeing a doctor costs money. Every fee arrives with its turnaround, since the person is deciding whether to bother asking. And the prescription charge is pushed back to where it belongs instead of being answered as though the practice set it.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks what their own case would cost, whether a fee can be waived, or wants a paid letter turned round quickly.
Fees and turnarounds for anything unusual are agreed by the practice rather than quoted off a page. Leave me your name, an email and what you need, and the team will confirm the cost and how long it will take.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never quote a fee that is not on your own published list.
- Never say a letter or a form is free without checking it against that list, since the boundary is where the arguments happen.
- Never state the prescription charge as though the practice set it or collected it.
- Never promise a turnaround for a report, because it is written in a clinician's administrative time and the queue is not visible from here.
Questions
- Why publish fees at all when most work is free?
- Because the questions that reach reception are almost entirely about the exceptions. A short list with prices and turnarounds answers them outright, and it also stops patients believing the appointment itself is chargeable.
- Can it tell somebody whether they are exempt from prescription charges?
- No. That depends on the person, and it cannot look anybody up or verify anything. It can point at the published criteria and should say plainly that checking is not something it can do.
- Does the turnaround really need to sit beside every fee?
- Yes, and it is the half practices forget. Somebody who needs a letter for next Tuesday is asking a scheduling question wearing a price tag, and a fee on its own answers the wrong one.
Keep reading
- Everything for a medical practiceAdministrative questions a practice can safely automate, the symptom questions it must never touch, and how to word the refusal.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- The insurer wants something from the practice, not the other way roundThe insurer asks the practice for a report with the patient's consent. What can be said about consent, who pays and who decides.
- The patient had the appointment and the invoice goes to a firmA surgery bills insurers, solicitors and employers more often than patients. Who the payer is, and why the invoice arrives weeks later.
- Why a practice cannot email somebody a way back inA patient online account opens a medical record, so access is reissued after an identity check at the desk rather than by email.
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