Evening,
A quick question regarding a HGV medical.
I need to take a medical , I’m reapplying for my class 1 and because of my age it’s required.
I have seen one medical priced at £55 and one with another outfit priced £90.
What do I get for my extra £35 …?
Regards
A prostrate exam?
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The £90 probably refers to me. It reflects the cost of getting a doctor to attend the centre with his assistant. And then we have to supply two members of staff to facilitate the medicals. So, in short, you get nothing extra. It suits many. It wont suit everyone. Saturday morning suits a lot of folks and avoids having time off generally.
Perfectly possible to pay well in excess of £120 in some places.
Incidentally, just in case anyone thinks I’m making money out of this (fat chance!) we have to pay the doctor for 15 medicals as a minimum. And when there’s less than that, it costs me money.
Pete 
I can’t say how different medical examiners decide how much to charge, but I can tell you what the charge covers.
I agree with Peter Smythe that there are factors which are not always obvious to the driver.
Obviously, there is a doctor’s time which has to be paid for, plus the cost of renting the room. All doctors need to be trained and to have ongoing supervision to ensure they fully understand the DVLA rules and work to a high level of accuracy.
All doctors have to have professional medical insurance which can cost several thousand pounds a year.
Some of the fee for the medical goes to pay for office expenses and admin staff to answer calls, arrange appointments, and deal with queries.
There is also the time cost of the medical director who is responsible to the General Medical Council to deliver a safe and professional service.
The medical director also deals with any problems which may arise and speaks to the many drivers who call in with medical queries.
All doctors have to be assessed by a specialist doctor every twelve months in order to be allowed to continue working as a doctor, so each doctor who works for us needs a report from us including the results of telephone quality surveys which we conduct, and any other feedback, either good or bad, from drivers.
And finally, there is VAT. On a £60 medical that would be £50 for the medical and £10 to be collected as tax and handed over to the government.
I can’t speak for other providers, but we donate £5 to charity for each medical we do and so far we’ve given away around two million pounds over the last 20 years.
Hope this helps.
DerekC1963:
Evening,
A quick question regarding a HGV medical.
I need to take a medical , I’m reapplying for my class 1 and because of my age it’s required.
I have seen one medical priced at £55 and one with another outfit priced £90.
What do I get for my extra £35 …?Regards
You dont get anything extra for your £35. I use a doctor who is not my own, who practices from a medical centre. He advertises on the internet and he fits in the drivers medicals between his regular patients, last time I had one it was £60. You are basically ‘‘going private’’ by paying a fee for a private medical. My first ever medical, my own doctor wanted £120 so I just rang round all the local doctors and went with the cheapest, which believe it or not i managed to get for £15 Unfortunately he retired about 10 years ago
I don’t really know why GPs are so expensive. My personal experience was that the practice manager wanted cash £110 or something. However, the initial line before the medical was that it depended on what was involved, which I am sure can be variable. In my case I had the medical and then the practice indicated it was actually a flat fee. I advised they could keep the medical form or accept £50, as I had been misled. They did accept £50, but it had to be cash.
I am fairly sure that the remuneration from the NHS for a 15 minute appointment is not over £100. I guess the premium is because it is private, I don’t know. Difficult to justify in any case and when it is cash, you wonder if the appointment is charged out to the NHS anyway. It clearly isn’t going through the books.
i went to my own doctor last time,cost @£90 iirc,but the Company paid it back to me 
Noremac:
I am fairly sure that the remuneration from the NHS for a 15 minute appointment is not over £100. I guess the premium is because it is private, I don’t know.
I made the mistake of getting my first medical through my GP and got fleeced for £110. She was quite apologetic as she said she used to do them for £40-50 but the practice management put a stop to it. As the 40-50 didn’t cover the costs for the 2-3 hours she ended up putting into it, her theory that if they kept them cheap, they would get more and she would get much quicker at doing them. But because they were expensive she didn’t fill many in so it took her longer to complete everything.
DrPhilThornley:
I can’t say how different medical examiners decide how much to charge, but I can tell you what the charge covers.
I agree with Peter Smythe that there are factors which are not always obvious to the driver.
Obviously, there is a doctor’s time which has to be paid for, plus the cost of renting the room. All doctors need to be trained and to have ongoing supervision to ensure they fully understand the DVLA rules and work to a high level of accuracy.
All doctors have to have professional medical insurance which can cost several thousand pounds a year.
Some of the fee for the medical goes to pay for office expenses and admin staff to answer calls, arrange appointments, and deal with queries.
There is also the time cost of the medical director who is responsible to the General Medical Council to deliver a safe and professional service.
The medical director also deals with any problems which may arise and speaks to the many drivers who call in with medical queries.
All doctors have to be assessed by a specialist doctor every twelve months in order to be allowed to continue working as a doctor, so each doctor who works for us needs a report from us including the results of telephone quality surveys which we conduct, and any other feedback, either good or bad, from drivers.
And finally, there is VAT. On a £60 medical that would be £50 for the medical and £10 to be collected as tax and handed over to the government.
I can’t speak for other providers, but we donate £5 to charity for each medical we do and so far we’ve given away around two million pounds over the last 20 years.
Hope this helps.
So, from the horses mouth, what do you do differently to Doctors on Wheels Ltd?
From this horse, we provide medicals acceptable to DVLA. Not all do.
Pete
GPs getting a bit of a bashing here, no longer NHS Heroes I see… 
For anyone based in the north-east, I know a place where you can get your medical for £45, there are two doctors who alternate, one a GP who not only runs his own practice (you can get them done there) but travels to the driver training centre for medicals (no price difference AFAIAA). The other is a NHS hospital doctor who got involved to help out when the other doctor couldn’t.