Non-NHS Services
Dollar Health Centre has a contract with NHS Forth Valley to provide a comprehensive range of NHS services. Sometimes patients request examinations or reports that are not covered by the NHS. Where possible, the doctors at the health centre will undertake this work for our registered patients on a fee-based service. Fees depend on the amount of time and clinical input involved, but are generally £30 for each unit of 15 minutes.
Examples of chargeable services include:
- pre-employment medicals
- firearms application forms
- private medicals
- insurance claim forms
- private medical certificates
- fitness to drive/fitness to travel certificates
- holiday cancellation certificates.
This list is not exhaustive and charges for non-NHS work must be paid for either in advance or at the time of collection where the fee is the responsibility of the patient. If a fee for an insurance report or solicitors report requires payment, patients should note that the practice will not release reports to these companies, unless there are exceptional circumstances, until fees are paid.
Fees for non-NHS services are advertised in the practice. If you have any queries about fees or any other private medical services please discuss them with the receptionist or the practice manager.
Subject Access Request (SAR)
You will appreciate that health data relating to any individual is highly confidential and the Practice must ensure that it releases such data only to the person to whom it relates, or to a person authorised to act on his or her behalf. If you require to see any health data, please ask our admin team for a SAR form and complete this as fully and accurately as possible to enable us to locate the exact information you require.
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) gives you the statutory right of access to any information. You may wish to authorise someone else to make your application on your behalf and if you have parental responsibilities you may make an application to see your child’s notes.
You do not have to give a reason for applying for access to your medical records. If you do not need access to your entire records, it would be helpful if you would inform us of the periods and area of your health records that you require, along with details which you feel may have relevance (e.g. clinic type, location, dates).
Timescale for subject access requests
The information should be available to you within 28 days of receipt of your accurately completed form and confirmation of consent. Due to demand and certain circumstances, this period can be extended but we will keep you informed of the progress of your request during this extended period.
Two forms of identity must be provided (one of which must be photographic). This is to ensure information is not released to unauthorised individuals. The table below outlines the proof of identity we can accept.
| Type of application | Identification required |
|---|
| Patient applying for their own | One which must be photographic i.e. passport. One containing individuals name and address |
Third Party Applying. Consent of Patient will be required BEFORE the request will be
processed | One containing Third Party name and address
One must be Photographic ID of Third Party
|
Applying on behalf of a child
We will ALWAYS obtain consent for release of records from a child age 12+ to <16 if a third party is making request | One which must be Child’s birth certificate Photographic ID of person with parental rights |
Guide to safely seeking private medical care
We understand that some patients may wish to seek private treatment. There has been a recent increase in the number of private clinics available, and we would like to provide you with some points to consider to keep you safe.
If you are considering seeking private treatment, we would recommend you book an appointment with the GP to discuss your concerns first. We can help talk you through the available NHS and private options to guide you on making your decision on what is right for you.
When you contact private providers we recommend you:
- Check with your insurance provider which private specialist they recommend
- If you do not have private insurance there is an option to pay upfront for private care, and you should contact the private provider for a quote.
- Check with the clinic, what treatment is offered, including prescriptions and follow-up. Please check whether you can financially cover all the follow-up, to avoid disappointment and risk to your health, as this may not be available on the NHS.
- Ask them if you need a referral from your GP and we are happy to help with this.
Please check the clinic you are planning to go to is regulated by Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) on the HIS website. This will ensure that you are visiting dependable clinic.
Please ask your private clinic to inform us of any treatment you have had and we can keep this within your medical records. They can email this information to us by using practice email fv.DollarHC@nhs.scot
Medicines and monitoring recommended by private specialists and clinics
Many medicines prescribed by NHS hospital specialists are licensed 'for specialist use', or require particular monitoring. We have robust shared-care protocols within the NHS to allow us to prescribe many of these drugs. Unfortunately, we do not have similar shared care protocols for people accessing care in the private sector. For this reason we are unable to prescribe or support the ongoing monitoring of such medicines (e.g. with regular blood tests) when people are being treated privately. Your private healthcare provider can organise this for you, but it is likely to be at an additional cost. Please bear this in mind when seeking to access healthcare in the private sector.