GPs make brazen bid to rake in more cash as they look to overturn ban on charging their NHS patients for private work
Family doctors are currently banned from demanding money for non-NHS work from registered patients
GPs want to rake in cash by charging their own patients for private work.
Family doctors are currently banned from demanding money for non-NHS work from those registered at their own practice.
Instead patients are told they have to find another surgery that will provide private care.
Now some doctors are calling for a change in the rules.
They want to be allowed to charge fees for work not covered by the NHS, like cosmetic surgery to remove harmless lumps and bumps.
It would be done in their own time and the cash would be private income, not for reinvestment in NHS care.
But the controversial move could prove unpopular at a time when PM Theresa May wants all GPs to provide seven-day-a-week NHS care.
Under the new proposals revealed by Pulse magazine, GPs would be able to provide private services to their own patients through a third-party company.
It would take payment from patients and then pay GPs for their time.
Dr Paul Roblin from Oxfordshire local medical committee, which represents GPs in the area, is backing the idea.
He said he wanted the ban on private work on registered patients overturned.
Dr Roblin said: “It’s a silly rule and I’ve been trying to change it for years.
“The government has underfunded the GP contract yet we are being deprived of a source of alternative income.”
Oxfordshire LMC leader Prit Buttar said GPs are angry over a lack of NHS cash.
He said: “We have to look at alternative ways of increasing funding and look at models which will allow practices to operate within the rules.
“They will offer practice services, for example, if someone wants a minor operation but can only do this in an evening, then they can do this by charging a small fee.”
But the British Medical Association does not support the plans.
GP committee boss Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “All GP practices are contracted to provide free care to every patient irrespective of their financial ability to pay. This is a key cornerstone of the NHS which the vast majority of doctors support.
“GPs are not allowed to charge their own patients for most private services – even if they are not available on the NHS.”
A spokesman for NHS England said: “All patients have a right to access high quality primary care services which are free at the point of delivery.
“Strict safeguards are in place to ensure that GPs cannot charge patients for NHS services.”