1. 3 updates

GPs 'want £25 appointment fee'

51% of GPs surveyed are in favour of the NHS charging up to £25 for routine appointments. 440 of them were quizzed by health magazine Pulse. 36% GPs said they were opposed to the idea.

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GP appointment charges 'would damage patient trust'

Edmond Ferdinandus, a GP in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said:

A small fee will make patients feel they have a large entitlement - if we do this, I predict the extra income will be entirely cancelled out by extra prescriptions, investigations or referrals.

Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the General Practitioners Committee which represents GPs in Britain, agreed and said the NHS should be free at point of delivery:

Charging patients would have adverse effects and would fundamentally be to the detriment of GP-patient relationships. We need to preserve trust between patients and their GPs.

GP: 'People don't value things if they're cheap'

Dr Shailendra Bhatt, a GP in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, told the Daily Mail:

I work in a walk-in centre. The amount of people who come through the door for practically no reason at all and say “I was out and saw this sign for a walk-in centre where one can see a doctor, so I came in.”People don’t value the things if they get it cheap, worse still if they get it for nothing.

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Half of GPs 'in favour of charging £25 for appointments'

Half of GPs are in favour of the NHS charging up to £25 for routine appointments, according to a survey.

Many believe charging for face-to-face consultations is the only way to manage the increasing workload and rising patient demand, health magazine Pulse said.

Half of GPs 'in favour of charging £25 for appointments'. Credit: Hugh Macknight/PA Wire

The poll of 440 GPs by the magazine, 51% said they would support imposing a small fee to visit a GP, compared with 36% who would not.

Last year a similar poll found only a third of GPs would support the move, suggesting a growing number are willing to consider drastic solutions to reduce their workload.

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