CHARITY chairman Alexander Kirk Wilson is outraged that the Marlborough Medical Practice would not offer a discounted medical examination to allow him to continue driving the Kennet Community Transport bus.

Kennet Community Transport (KCT) provides lifts for elderly and disabled residents to the Jubilee and New Road Centres five days a week.

Mr Kirk Wilson, of Purlyn Acre, Marlborough, recently turned 70 which means in order to continue to act as a relief driver he requires a DVLA medical examination.

He contacted the practice on a number of occasions explaining that he expected to have to pay but asking for a discounted charity price.

However, the practice responded to say they would not to be able to reduce its standard £90 fee as recommended by the British Medical Association.

Mr Kirk Wilson said: “This seems outrageous to me and out of kilter with the doctors' standing in the community.

“This amount of money may be okay for someone who uses the continued bus rating to earn a living, but not for charities run on a shoestring like KCT.

“Ramsbury Surgery charged our treasurer nothing for his medical. Cotswold Medicals in Swindon Ltd does them for £56, including a £5 donation to charity, and still makes a reasonable living.

“I cannot believe that charging charities a reduced fee would open the floodgates. It ill behoves the practice to act in such a greedy manner.”

A spokesman for the practice explained that it is up to individual practices to decide how much to charge, and this will vary depending on time expended, running costs and professional expenses.

The spokesman said: “There are many services that people ask their GP to provide that are not covered by the NHS.

“We charge fees for non-NHS work not out of greed, but necessity. GPs are self-employed, with practices holding a contract with the NHS to provide specific services, and they have to cover their costs in the same way as any small business.

“The practice has given careful consideration to the amount of work involved in different non-NHS work and has set fees that all our GPs charge to undertake certain work.

“A full list of the costs of all private work is available to all our patients at the practice or on our website, and we are unable to make exceptions for any patients.

“GPs are under no obligation to undertake non-NHS work, and that time spent completing forms and preparing reports takes the GP away from the medical care of his or her patients.

“However, we want to be able to offer a good service to our patients and we believe that charging a set fee for such non-NHS work is the fairest way to enable us to do so.”