Requests for Medical Reports for Local Authority Grants |
Housing is closely related to health in many ways. Good housing is vital to good health and improvements in housing have certainly been one of the main causes of improvements in health in Glasgow. Local Authority Grants are available to upgrade housing with central heating systems and other improvements. Most patients themselves are perfectly able to provide a description of their medical problems and how these affect their lives. This has the advantage that the information is given to the Local Authorities in lay terms which should be easily understood by the non-medical staff who assess their relative priority. The NHS does not fund medical reports for Local Authorities and GPs should charge a fee for such reports, as is done for any other private medical report. GPs have no wish to provide reports where the information can be easily obtained from the individual themselves. Patients should not have to pay for reports to Local Authorities when they can, in most cases, provide the necessary information themselves. The routine request for a medical report for individuals who apply for housing improvement grants simply adds to GPs paperwork which gives GPs less time to spend on their patients. Glasgow GPs believe that all individuals should have warm, dry housing with all necessary amenities. We suggest you tell the Local Authority of your medical problems as part of your application. Please feel free to show them this form which states that Glasgow GPs do not provide medical reports for these grant applications. To download this as a word document. |