Recently one of the SHA's trade representatives tried to obtain a medical certificate from a GP other than his own in order to save on the costs. However, when going through an alternative GP, there is probably not enough data available to enable accurate completion of the taxi medical for licensing purposes.

 

 

Other GP practices can access some of your personal data from other practice records via HHR or the National Summary Care Record, but it is limited in detail in both cases. In particular locally, it is limited by many practices who use the SystmOne clinical system which doesn't upload anything to HHR at the moment.

 

If a GP knew in advance they were completing a medical for a patient not registered with them, they could in theory request medical history directly from the patient's own GP practice. However, it has been pointed out that the administrative burden of obtaining these records would have to be borne by the applicant.

 

The advice to taxi drivers is therefore to obtain medical certificates from their own GP. In light of this Southampton City Council Licensing Office does not propose any change to the present policy, and are adamant that your own GP is the person to approach for a medical certificate.