General Practitioner Reports (GP Reports)

GPs are the first point of contact for people with a health condition and provide ongoing care to their patients. They are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses and may refer the patient to hospital for specialised care, in which case a report is usually sent back to the GP. GPs will have long term knowledge of the patient and hold the patient's records including hospital correspondence. GPs generally are not trained and do not assess a patient's function and are therefore not usually in a position to give information about their patients' ability to perform daily living activities.

It is reasonable to expect a GP's report to contain factual information such as diagnosis, history of the condition, clinical findings, results of special tests, medication and treatment plan.

The GP may have very limited information on people who have had stable, long-term disabilities, often since childhood, for example children and adults with learning disabilities. Claimants with mental health problems or learning disabilities may be mainly under the care of community psychiatric services or other specialist teams and it is often more appropriate to make an initial request for a factual report from another agency or professional.

Amended July 2009