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Healthwatch ask General Practice Committee for transparency on additional charges

The General Practitioners Committee (GPC) recently met with Healthwatch England to discuss charges that GPs can make for work not covered by their contract.

Whilst the patient group understands the reasons behind charging, their main concern was a lack of consistency between practices and sometimes even within practices.  

The GPC explained that the BMA is not able to set fee levels for additional work and is expressly prohibited from doing so, but agreed to remind practices of current guidance on charging.  These guidelines can be found here:  

• GP fees explained
• GP fee finder

It may also be helpful for practices to display information about fees and the reasons behind them where they can easily be seen by patients.

Last updated : 14 Oct 2015

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