A welfare advisor from Macmillan, Bath CAB, will be available to chat to visitors at The Athenaeum from 10am until 12pm on the following Fridays in 2024:
☑️19 January
☑️15 March
☑️17 May
☑️19 July
☑️20 September
☑️15 November
Find out about grants or benefits you may be eligible to receive

We do not provide letters for housing, so please do not request these.

Whilst we appreciate that housing problems can be stressful, this is a matter for the council housing office. If the council requires additional medical information, they will send a specific form to the GP surgery. You will need to provide your written consent for this.

If you are intending to apply for a council home for health reasons you do not need to send a letter from the GP.

The Council will write, in confidence, to your doctor if further information is required.

GPs receive frequent requests for medical letters and reports in support of housing applications from a variety of sources – the local authority, housing associations, directly from patients and from patients via Citizens Advice Bureau. The arrangements for seeking GP reports and for payment vary from local authority area to local authority area, and even when clearly agreed are often not implemented by local authority staff. However all requests should come via the Council or Housing Association and not the patient.
Information in support an application based on health grounds should be supplied by the applicant using a form provided by the Housing Department (self-assessment). This should not require any input from the GP/practice.

Only if additional information is required, should the Housing Department Medical Officer obtain it from the applicant's doctor, preferably using a standard form, provided the patient has given written consent. The Medical Officer should seek information which is only available to the GP, for example:
• the diagnosis;
• severity of the illness;
• medication

We understand that patients are often wrongly advised to get a letter from their GP and we can supply you with a letter outlining the above that you can show to anyone wrongly directing you to us for such documentation.

The certificate will reduce the cost of HRT for those patients who pay for their prescriptions. It will be valid for 12 months and covers an unlimited number of listed HRT medicines for the cost of two single prescription charges. The current cost is £9.65 per item. This means if you pay for more than two HRT prescriptions in a year you will save money.

How can we improve our services? Share your ideas by joining the patient participation group. 

For more information visit: https://www.avenuesurgery.co.uk/patient-participation-group