GPs must help patients obtain firearms licences if requested

[Hrun]

If you want a report in order to support your disability claim do you have to pay?

I pay my taxes, including 33% of my bonus, yet I do not have kids, so don't use the schools I pay for.. don't commit crimes, so don't cost the police I pay for.. and am in good health, so don't overuse the nhs I pay for..

Heaven help me if I ever actually need these services I pay for other people to use.

[joe]

I wounder if you ask some gp's to remove the marker, if some would ?

The NRA et al should be demanding this medical rubbish be scrapped ! No shooting by An fac holder was done because they was some illness that police didn't know about

NI doesn't have this intrusive medical flag & reporting rubbish

[Blackstuff]

I wounder if you ask some gp's to remove the marker, if some would ?

Individual GP's do not have the authority to remove information from the database even if they wanted to, which IMO, they most certainly do not. In fact asking one to do so would probably result in the request being passed onto the police as some kind of nefarious activity.

When this was all just being talked about after the Cumbrian shootings I sent a letter to every GP in my surgery simply asking what their personal opinion of firearms legislation in this country was, each with a SSAE and one of three boxes to tick (Too relaxed, about right, too strict). Only one of them bothered themselves to return a response. I got a phone call from one of the doctors later on to say she hadn't replied because she "was worried about how the information would be used" This despite me putting a confidentiality statement on the letters I'd sent saying it was strictly for my own information. I switched surgeries that month.

[hitchphil]

Some FAC holders have suggested that those with potential illnesses see a doctor other than their GP & in private first, then decide if they need to take the issue further via GP, a bout of feeling low may just be stress that dissipates but going to your GP it may be recorded as onset of depression? thus an issue - however the Herts & Beds FAC renewal form has this in it!

i am not sure that statement in the image is legal? does the HO law remove the right to medial or personal privacy?

Am still in the dark as to what happens - if my Dr says '£50 please' & I say 'sod off' i am not willing to pay what happens? if there is no Doc reply after x days do the FLOs have to record that as no adverse reason to reject the application? I dont believe the Dr can force me to pay a fee? there is no contract between us? as far as i am concerned the FAC fee is the only fee i will pay.

if the BMA are so againts this why dont they just advise Dr's to not cooperate & not reply to FAC applications? then the Gov would have to go away & think again.

[MistAgain]

It seems to me that the minute you apply for an FAC or even a SGC you are expected to waive all your legal rights ?

[Blackstuff]

Some FAC holders have suggested that those with potential illnesses see a doctor other than their GP & in private first, then decide if they need to take the issue further via GP, a bout of feeling low may just be stress that dissipates but going to your GP it may be recorded as onset of depression? thus an issue - however the Herts & Beds FAC renewal form has this in it!

i am not sure that statement in the image is legal? does the HO law remove the right to medial or personal privacy?

The question is, how would they possibly find out about a private consultation Obviously with the NHS its a central database which they can access with your permission, but if you just go somewhere private, without a referral from your GP they have no way of tracing it, unless you either tell them, or the doctor you see somehow finds out you're also a shooter, puts two and two together and then breaks patient confidentiality..... Its sad that its come to this but we didn't create this situation

Am still in the dark as to what happens - if my Dr says '£50 please' & I say 'sod off' i am not willing to pay what happens? if there is no Doc reply after x days do the FLOs have to record that as no adverse reason to reject the application? I dont believe the Dr can force me to pay a fee? there is no contract between us? as far as i am concerned the FAC fee is the only fee i will pay.

if the BMA are so againts this why dont they just advise Dr's to not cooperate & not reply to FAC applications? then the Gov would have to go away & think again.

That's what the process was before this 'good news' from SACS

[Sim G]

How much more dangerous has it become whilst attempting to secure public safety? I know of a couple of shooters and one RFD who sought the help of their GP, as well as friends, when they were experiencing a troubled time in their lives. Generally, it was temporary and dealt with accordingly and move on they did. But what now? People are going to avoid their GPs like the plague and some may then sink deeper and deeper into the "illness" they'll be suffering from.

Of course, as an MP you can allegedly snort cocaine off the buttocks of a homosexual prostitute and get "promoted" to the Justice Committee...!! Place has gone fecking mad....

[hitchphil]

................ & what the heck is a 'medical practitioner' - would that include a homeopath for de-stress 'water'? or acupuncturist for acute/ouch pain relief? or a Chinese herbal medicine shop (there is one in town) for a stone age witches brew to cure your advanced stage 3 lung cancer? or even a therapist to help you work out why you got divorced? (the answer to that one is getting married ...so dont do that folks.. its bad for your life, health & wallet).

This has all become non human, tacit compliance for me, like websites, (e.g. date of birth required because i am ordering some nuts & bolts on line? - & I lie am 125years old in some places!) I tick these sodding boxes only to make the application / process work.... not because i am actually consenting or believe the point. If i had consulted some other 'practitioner' its exactly because i didn't want NHS +Police+Gov / 1984, Stasi state organ knowing thus abusing an event or misinterpreting something & using it in error? (because we have such little redress & the police / Gov are answerable to nobody but themselves!).

& for a club FAC renewal where the holder has a personal FAC anyway? what happens then TWO markers on your NHS record...whooop or double fees ?

why dont we all just tick the box then ignore the Dr & not participate in this ridiculous badly thought out load of crud?

[bradaz11]

Doors this mean if end up in hospital on holiday. You have to disclose it?

[GeeRam]

Am still in the dark as to what happens - if my Dr says '£50 please' & I say 'sod off' i am not willing to pay what happens? if there is no Doc reply after x days do the FLOs have to record that as no adverse reason to reject the application? I dont believe the Dr can force me to pay a fee? there is no contract between us? as far as i am concerned the FAC fee is the only fee i will pay.

if the BMA are so againts this why dont they just advise Dr's to not cooperate & not reply to FAC applications? then the Gov would have to go away & think again.

That's what the process was before this 'good news' from SACS

That's why I'm now completely at a loss as to what to do. I had a request for money for my SGC app 2 weeks ago from GP, via a voicemail message, which as per BASC, I've just ignored, on the basis of the 21 days extra wait..........but now, no idea.
For me the money isn't the issue, it's a point of principle, and being shafted by others with ill thought and uncoordinated instructions/guidance which is all open to individual interpretation. The GP's are clearly being shafted by the BMA as much as we are being as well.

Someone has posted this very good reply in that linked GP forum about this today.

Quote:
Please join me in writing to your local firearms service and insisting that GPs are paid a fee by the firearms authority (not the patient).

The argument runs like this:
1) Providing reports to the police is not part of our contractual responsibility.
2) The police charge members of the public for administering their shotgun application -around £120 currently.
3) The police feel that they need to tighten their policy and want us to search through medical records and generate a report to them.
4) This request for a report comes from the police (not the patient) and is sent to the police therefore they have to incorporate the costs for this service in the fees they already charge for administering the scheme.
5) Incidentally I have also made it clear that the practice has not agreed a timescale with them, that they cannot assume that if we have not replied within a certain timescale that we have made a check and that we have no concerns, and to stop making requests for reports until a framework has been agreed.
6) I also point out that the read codes that we use on patient records are nothing to do with the police, and form part of the medical records. Likewise we would have no jurisdiction requesting that the police enter data on patients criminal or police records.
7) I point out that as good citizens we will continue to report concerns to them as we always have.

If local groups can negotiate we have a chance with not being totally stitched up on this one.
Clearly GPs will get drawn into the next Dunblane event medicolegally, and we need to be compensated for taking this additional risk on.