Medical Reports

When a Medical Report is Required

Unfortunately, an increasing number of police forces have imposed a mandatory medical verification for anyone applying for or renewing a shotgun or firearms licence, despite many NHS GPs not providing medicals as they are not contractually obliged to offer the service. A number of other police forces require the same medical if you disclose a medical condition on your application, or your GP notifies your firearms licensing officer of a medical condition.

The following police forces require a mandatory medical to our knowledge (your police force will confirm):

• Bedfordshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Cheshire
• Derbyshire
• Dyfed-Powys
• Essex
• Gloucestershire
• Gwent
• Hertfordshire
• Kent
• Lancashire
• Lincolnshire
• Merseyside
• North Wales
• Nottinghamshire
• Scotland
• South Wales
• South Yorkshire
• Surrey
• Sussex
• Thames Valley
• West Mercia

It is expected that soon all UK police forces will require a medical verification for shotgun and firearms certificate holders and applicants.

Shotguns and Firearms Medical Report

• When you apply for a firearms or shotgun license we can issue you with a medical police proforma, report or certificate regarding your health.
• GP surgeries have changed the way they work and filling in the letter you require for the police or copying your records will not be seen as any sort of priority for them.
• We suggest that you approach or write to them politely and request your record in writing if they will not provide you with a certificate or the pro forma you need.

Everything Explained

• When you apply for or renew your shotgun or firearms certificate, in many areas you will be asked to get a letter or form from your GP certifying you have no medical conditions that would preclude you from holding a licence.
• We can examine your GP record and provide a certificate and police forms to you directly within five days of receiving the completed forms. Our fees for this are £100 (£75 BASC and CPSA members).
• Your records may be paper or electronic (please be aware that sending paper copies can take up to an extra week before your certificate is processed and therefore, electronic copies are preferred).
• Online access; you can grant us permission to access the records, direct from the surgery. However, these must be the complete medical records.
• Our average turnaround time for completing the report is 7 days (once we’ve received your medical records) but is often the same day due, but we advise completing our referral form with plenty of notice as your GP surgery can take up to 30 days to provide your medical records to us.
• We send your medical verification report back to you or directly to the firearms officer depending on the force area.
• We do not make any decisions on your fitness to hold a firearms or shotgun licence and this decision rests entirely with the Police authority to whom you are applying.
• Positive Healthcare Group provides a factual statement after examining your records and if you have any of the medical conditions listed on the application page, we are obliged to comment.
• No meetings in person are required and you will have both e-mail and telephone contact with us directly to help manage the process smoothly.

How to Apply For Your Medical Report

• Send us your GP records and we can issue your medical Proforma or Certificate for the Police Firearms Office in the required area to process your firearms application.
• Your records will be treated in a strict professional manner and not disclosed to any third party at any time.
• Our fee for a medical certificate is £100. (£75 for BASC and CPSA members).
• If you require us to obtain your medical records on your behalf our fee for this is an additional £20.

Get a copy of your GP records
You have a right to ask you GP practice for a copy of your records with no fee for this request. They may give you a paper version of your documents or offer you electronic access to your record. It is important that you get a full and complete copy of all the GP consultation notes (including free text) and any letters sent or received about you. For your Firearms Licence Medical Report a summary is not acceptable unfortunately and a full copy is needed including any old paper or card records.

Electronic records
All GP surgeries are electronic now. We can accept an electronic version of your records but it has to be complete just like a paper copy. It must include the free text from all consultations and copies of any correspondence or letters about your health.

With a computerised record system there can be difficulties. Many use a system called EMIS and may offer you electronic remote access to your notes. Usually this is a type of summary. If you are offered this service you should ask for a full access version or a printed paper version instead. We realise this is difficult but we can only certify your notes to the police if they are complete.

Fill in our Application form
This grants consent for us to view or obtain your medical records. Will will send this electronically to your email address.

Send the records to us
You can do this either by post or scanned and emailed to us directly. If you are given electronic access you can pass this on to us and we will ensure that the record is complete. Please be aware that posted copies can take up to an extra week to process and therefore electronic copies are much preferred.

Pay the fee to us
You can do this either in person in our Clinic, by Bank Transfer or over the telephone.

These are the Medical Conditions we look for that require comment by the police:

An acute Stress reaction or an acute reaction to stress caused by trauma

• Depression or Anxiety
• Suicidal, intention, thoughts or self-harm.
• A history or diagnosis of dementia
• Mania, bipolar disorder or a psychotic disorder
• Personality disorders
• Neurological conditions: e.g. example Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease, or Epilepsy
• Any alcohol or drug abuse
• Eyesight
• Other mental or physical condition which might affect the safe possession of a shotgun or firearm