The National Health Service (General Medical Services) Regulations 1992

Fees

38.  A doctor shall not, otherwise than under or by virtue of the Regulations, demand or accept a fee or other remuneration for any treatment, including child health surveillance services, contraceptive services, maternity medical services and minor surgery services, whether under these terms of service or not, which he gives to a person for whose treatment he is responsible under paragraph 4, except—

(a) from any statutory body for services rendered for the purposes of that body’s statutory functions;

(b) from any body, employer or school for a routine medical examination of persons for whose welfare the body, employer or school is responsible, or an examination of such persons for the purpose of advising the body, employer or school of any administrative action they might take;

(c) for treatment which is not of a type usually provided by general medical practitioners and which is given—

(i) pursuant to the provisions of section 65 of the Act, or

(ii) in a registered nursing home which is not providing services under the Act,

if, in either case, the doctor is serving on the staff of a hospital providing services under the Act as a specialist providing treatment of the kind the patient requires and if, within 7 days of giving the treatment, the doctor supplies the FHSA, on a form provided by it for the purpose, with such information about the treatment as it may require;

(d) under section 158 of the Road Traffic Act 1988(1);

(e) from a dentist in respect of the provision at his request of an anaesthetic for a person for whom the dentist is providing general dental services;

(f) when he treats a patient under paragraph 4(3), in which case he shall be entitled to demand and accept a reasonable fee (recoverable in certain circumstances under paragraph 39) for any treatment given, if he gives the patient a receipt on a form supplied by the FHSA;

(g) for attending and examining (but not otherwise treating) a patient at his request at a police station in connection with proceedings which the police are minded to bring against him;

(h) for treatment consisting of an immunisation for which no remuneration is payable by the FHSA in pursuance of the Statement made under regulation 34 and which is requested in connection with travel abroad;

(i) for circumcising a patient for whom such an operation is requested on religious grounds and is not needed on any medical ground;

(j) for prescribing or providing drugs which a patient requires to have in his possession solely in anticipation of the onset of an ailment while he is outside the United Kingdom but for which he is not requiring treatment when the medicine is prescribed;

(k) for a medical examination to enable a decision to be made whether or not it is inadvisable on medical grounds for a person to wear a seat belt;

(l) where the person is not one to whom any of paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) of section 38(1) of the Act(2) applies (including by reason of regulations under section 38(6) of that Act), for testing the sight of that person.

(m) where he is a doctor who is authorised or required by an FHSA under regulation 20 of the Pharmaceutical Regulations to provide drugs, medicines or appliances to a patient and provides for that patient, otherwise than under pharmaceutical services, any Scheduled drug.

(1)

1988 c. 53.

(2)

1977 c. 49; section 38 was amended by the Health and Social Security Act 1984 (c. 48), section 1(3), by S.I. 1985/39, article 7(11), and by the Health and Medicines Act 1988 (c. 49), section 13(1).