My Local Surgery / GP Notice on door for LL'ers....

tommee2004

Full Member
"All people coming in for Lighter Life Medical forms, please note this now costs £104 per person, and any subsequent blood pressure check/medical check up will cost £50".



:wave_cry: :wave_cry: :wave_cry: :wave_cry:

What do people think about this? I think it is utterly disgusting! Thank god when I got mine signed only 8 weeks ago, I was charged the standard £19 for a medical form.

WOAH!
 
£104 :eek: :eek:

that is a total rip-off !!!

that would really put people off....so much for trying to reduce the obesity crisis !!!

Debz
xx
 
Thats terrible!

Totally unecessary, I've nothing against being charged but that is disgusting.

Hope there is somewhere else you can go?

Its shocking the difference between places, our gp's charge £20 for the form, but then do monthly's for free (thankfully) and are very supportive too. Experience differs so much and its just plain wrong!

Mags
xxx
 
OMGosh!!! :eek: :eek:


£104 :eek: :eek:

that is a total rip-off !!!

that would really put people off....so much for trying to reduce the obesity crisis !!!

Debz
xx

Exactly Deb! :mad:
 
wowser. that's a lot. i can understand charging and in a way, diccouraging people because it's taking up doctor's time for ill people when we all know how hard it is to get an appointment these days. that said, it toally goes against the govt drive to cut obesity and if people lose weight in the long term they will be less ill and need the doctor less. i can only imagine there must have been a huge increase in people doing LL in your area. how disheartening to try and make steps to make yourself healtheir and get faced with that. my advice? contact your local paper. theyre sure to run a story on it. take it from a former local paper reporter x
 
I would personally go to the local press and your local MP. The reason being that for heavy people, we are already doing all we can to reduce our weight and overall health and paying for it ourselves without any help from our local health authority. The NHS will do nothing to help except perscribe gasteric banding or pills that make you quite ill.

Have you told your LL Counsellor? This is absolute persecution of people who suffer with obesity. They are not allowed to chanrge a recovering drug addict for their checks. It just shows this particular practise up for what they are. They certainly don't have their patients well being in mind. How dare they ....

Sorry about that...off my soap box now .. XX
 
Ok, this is going to get me hated for life but.....

IF you went to see a solicitor you would pay £50 without batting an eyelid
IF you go to the Physiotherapist you pay £25 without batting
IF you get your nails done you pay anything upwards of £20

ALL YOUR CHOICE

IF we are on LL, CD or Lipotrim we are all paying £30+ a week to follow our chosen plans - OUR CHOICE

HOWEVER

You expect your GP to do a complete medical (for which the BMA recommend they charge £140) and then be CLINICALLY RESPONSIBLE for your health - which, believe it or not, by agreeing to do the checks they become FOR NOTHING

I don't agree with GPs having to charge for these BUT, LL and CD are not available on the NHS, GP's have to do all of the medicals and subsequent checks OUTSIDE of their CONTRACTED NHS hours. They already work 60hrs+ a week for the NHS.

If you have to berate your GP, at least look at these things in the wider context.

I work for a GP surgery. There are TWO GPs and THREE nurses looking after 6000 people. That is 3000 people per GP and 2000 per nurse. Each GP sees 20 people in each session. They both have 8 sessions (surgeries) a week. From each consultation there is a further 10 mins paperwork at least. YOU DO THE MATH!

How many of you charge an hourly rate? What average hourly rate do you charge?

I do understand that it seems such a HUGE amount of money being asked for BUT

every blood test is being charged to your GP at an average of £30 for processing

Please people - give your GPs a break!
 
i agree to an extent, helen. i didn't realise the LL thing was a complete medical. still seems a lot though. and in the context of the govt wanting to cut obesity (and its drain on the nhs) doctors shdnt really be doing things to discourage people from following a diet at their own cost. in the context of GPs being in short supply and lots of people who are ill not being able to get appts, i do agree with charging something. just maybe not £104! you made some very good points though. x
 
Thanks for NOT ripping my proverbial head off Jen.

My post should have said that ALL samples sent to a hospital for processing are charged to each surgery be it a blood, stool, urine, skin, semen or any other sample. The average cost per sample to my surgery is £30.

There is more than one side to EVERY story. I would urge anyone who is planning to go to the papers to check their understanding of the situation before taking this step. However, on the other hand if no-one speaks out change never happens.

At my surgery, as I have said before, one GP actively supports LL, CD & Lipotrim while the other actively dislikes them.
 
Thats a rip off my GP never charged me anything for the form or my 1st check up, I can understand charging a small amount but bloody hell it on takes a few mins surely it would cost more to get you loads of medication for Diabeties, blood pressure ETC.:mad:
 
Its not a complete medical though, its just a 5 min check up for blood pressure! There were no samples taken at my medical either.

I LOVE my GP practice I think they are excellent and I had no problem paying £20 for my check, and I would have paid more, but £104 surely is far too much for something that takes at most 10 min?

I don't think we should be quick to get reporters etc in or be too quick to berate surgeries, but when as quite often happens in this country there appears to be yet another 'post-code lottery' going on I think something does need to be done! I understand this is the GP's own choice to do them and not an NHS decision, but I really can see no justifacation for charging such a large amount.

Mags
xxx
 
I haven't seen the LL form, but I think you will find that it SHOULD be a proper medical report/examination. To my knowledge the form asks for medical history and asks if there is clincal evidence of contra-indications to participating in the various programs. Surely, to answer all of the questions would take at least 10 minutes without taking into account the time used taking measurements etc.

Again - I'm not saying that it's right to charge £104, nor is it right to expect your GP to lay themselves open to litigation from every angle once they sign the form.

The BMA (British Medical Association) have a scale of fees that they recommend GPs charge. These cover everything from a letter saying 'I confirm this person is who they say they are' to a full medical. These fees are not enforceable and some GPs charge a great deal more than is recommended however the scale is fair when looked at against other professions charging for work done.

The REAL injustice here is that these programmes are NOT available on the NHS and so these charges have to be levied in the first place. ESPECIALLY when the ONLY NHS clinic I know that FUNDS ITSELF is the VLCD clinic at HOPE Hospital in MAnchester!

How is is that only ONE clinic in the ENTIRE UK can be funded by the NHS but the overwhelming majority are refused.

BTW - Lipotrim is available on FP10 (prescription)through participating GPs - I challenge people to find those GPs.
 
I am not sure whether I agree that LL should be funded on the NHS.

As someone who has INVESTED in doing this programme for many months, I thought long and hard (about six months) before finally committing to do it. And it was a committment. The high cost (£66 per week) was one important consideration - if I was going to spend a sizable portion of my income for months, I was damn well going to make sure that I was going to complete the whole programme - and succeed in getting to a healthy weight for the first time ever.

I've just totted up the basic costs of purchasing the products for both development and management - they come out at a whopping £1,876. Then I must factor in the 40 mile round trip every week to attend meetings.

That cost, or INVESTMENT, helped me to focus when the going got tough. I wonder how committed I would have been if someone else had been paying. It might have been easier to 'give up' when the going got tough, or 'cheat'.

If you are paying to do LL yourself and cheat or give up, you only cheat yourself and waste your own money, not taxpayers'.

Might sound a bit harsh, but I wonder how much people will value something they don't have to personally sacrifice (i.e. money) something for?
 
another interesting point, amandajayne. kind of along the lines of should the nhs pay for smokers and obese people in general if they don't look after themselves. there's no clear cut answer but it's useful to discuss it i think.
 
"kind of along the lines of should the nhs pay for smokers and obese people in general if they don't look after themselves"

Hia GreenDayJen, I wasn't thinking in terms of blaming people who are overweight for their problem. It was really about the psychological effect of paying (or sacrificing) something in order to achieve something. I think it makes a difference if you invest time or money in order to achieve a goal.

I was thinking about the young girl who has featured on the '34 stone teenager' programmes. When I watched these programmes it struck me that giving her a bypass operation simply missed the point. She had a real problem with food which was in her head, and unless THAT was dealt with, she would never get better.

So, initially she lost weight but then started gaining again, and it wasn't until she got cognitive behaviour counselling that she finally began to recover emotionally. You could see the confidence emerging, it was lovely to see.

If the NHS offered CBT counselling (perhaps part funded by patient, part funded by NHS) of this nature to all people who required it, whether for weight loss (or gain), smoking, gambling, alcohol, or drug addiction, it would mean that patients could gain an insight into their addiction and learn how to deal with it.

It's certainly something to think about.
 
Wow, what an interesting discussion :)

I initially thought OMG, but on reading Helen and Amanda's reply, I'm now only on OMGish :D

It's true that we only see a small part of the GP's work and expenses, and also true that we put more value on things that cost us.

Having said that, there will be a number of people who would not be able to do the diet because of the cost. They just wouldn't be able to find that type of money.

So should doctors pay for it out of their own money? Nope. Not sure what the answer is though!
 
Thankfully my Mum doesn't have a weight problem but if she did....

she recently became a pensioner and her pension is actually £66 a week. Ok she could spend that on LL, but she wouldn't be able to buy deoderant...or tea...or pay her gas bill.

I know what you are saying AJ, about 'feeling' the value of things, but I also think there should be more help on the NHS for people like us, but the right sort of help as you have said.

The cost of LL does make it inaccessible for many, and additional costs like £104 before they even start may just make it impossible.

I also understand what Helen is saying too though, although I still think its too much.

Bear in mind I have nothing but praise for my local GP's.

Mags
xxx
 
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