Basic Terms and Conditions

Please be aware that Harley Psychiatrists is a premium service. Fees for private/independent Psychiatric treatment can be ongoing and costly.
Harley Street is respected world-wide as a leading centre of medical care and we do not cut any corners or offer any kind of “budget” services. Please read the section of the Welcome Leaflet titled “WHAT ARE THE ONGOING COSTS?” and be aware that we cannot offer any financial assistance. Lower-cost options may be available elsewhere through the NHS – discuss this with your GP if required.
If you are not fully satisfied with any of our terms, please do not proceed with any booking and seek an alternative service instead.

The following is a list of some terms and conditions you must agree to if you choose to make use of any services we offer. This is not an exhaustive list, it simply covers some commonly asked questions:

Emergencies, complex cases and times of crisis

If you find yourself in need of any urgent support or you are experiencing any unwanted issues: In line with all independent outpatient clinics, we cannot offer any kind of emergency help or advice as a replacement for the relevant services. This is particularly important to note while our Harley Street offices remain closed due to Covid-19 safety concerns, as our remote services are only suitable for straight-forward non-complex cases, and if your case involves any additional levels of complexity you should seek a suitable alternative service.
If any patient is experiencing a crisis situation, the right course of action would be to contact a suitable service without delay – for example, a local A&E hospital, your GP or a relevant service such as Samaritans.
In any case, regardless of complexity or urgency, it is normally required to keep your GP fully informed at every stage of the process and to seek their advice on general management of your health.

Covid-19

All independent healthcare services have been affected by the global pandemic situation. Changes within the NHS have greatly increased the pressure placed on independent doctors and services. While we try to facilitate as many services for our patients as possible, you must be aware of:

• Due to the current COVID-19 situation, all consultations are taking place by video meeting (unless explicitly agreed otherwise in advance)
• Since the start of the pandemic, we have increased the size of our admin team in order to attempt to respond to all patient queries at this difficult time for everyone. However, in line with the entire healthcare industry, we currently cannot meet our normal service time-frames and delays should be expected.
• Our phone lines and emails are manned 7 days per week. However, due to the effects of the pandemic on our clients, call and email volumes remain high and you may encounter delays when attempting to reach our admin team. We are working on improving this situation, but in the meantime these delays are unavoidable.

Appointments and Services

• For all appointments (and especially while appointments are being carried out remotely), patients are normally required to keep their GPs informed of any diagnosis and treatment recommended by the Psychiatrist. ADHD patients specifically must request physical monitoring from the local GP of blood pressure, pulse, weight and height before commencing any medications and must follow the GP’s advice in this regard.
• Scripts are usually sent to a pharmacy, and a time-frame of around 2 weeks is usual at the moment due to the COVID-19 situation. If speed and reliability are of essence, consider requesting for the doctor to use the Pharmacierge service, which may incur higher charges due to their enhanced services, but is usually more reliable than standard post via local chemist.
• Practitioners cannot discuss questions (for example, regarding treatment dosage) outside of appointments. To discuss any such issues with your doctor after the consultation, contact the admin team to book a short follow-up appointment. Any unplanned/unscheduled correspondence between the clinic and any third-parties (for example: family / friends / other medical practitioners / solicitors / employers / etc) will be automatically billed at a standard hourly rate of £385 (subject to change, accurate as of April 2020), with minimum increments of 1-hour for each action.
• A standard 48-hour cancellation/rescheduling policy applies. Appointments cancelled, missed or rescheduled within 48 hours will incur the full fee, with no exceptions.
• A diagnosis cannot always be established in a single appointment, and treatment plans can vary. In some cases, diagnosis may require additional/multiple appointments and external referral for scans / blood tests / input from other types of specialists.
• The quoted appointment length is not a measure of face-to-face time with the doctor. For example, a 1-hour appointment typically involves 30-45 minutes of face-to-face time, with the rest used by the doctor for essential administration related to the appointment, including: consideration of issues raised, preparation of script or treatment plan, etc.
• Harley Psychiatrists reserves the right to discharge patients or refuse treatment at our discretion, with no advance notice.
• Any defamatory activity affecting Harley Psychiatrists (inclusive of negative public reviews) will be referred for legal processing which will include (but not be limited to) recovering all costs for current and future losses and damages.
• We openly welcome all feedback, whether made directly to our team or published. While we work hard to provide the best service possible, we understand that sometimes things don’t quite go to plan, and this is why all patients should be aware of our Complaints Policy, as this would be the first step in attempting to resolve any issues that may arise.
  Please be aware that any negative public statements or reviews made against the service, staff or any of the independent practitioners, will be considered a self-discharge from our service. We offer an individualised service which requires mutual trust and respect, and it is unethical to provide such a service where this trust is lost. If a patient publicly makes statements against the service, while still requesting further appointments or other services from our team, the public statement will be considered a dishonest attempt to extort certain services/medication and will be referred to our legal team.

Letters / Reports

• Initial psychiatric assessments normally result in a brief appointment confirmation letter from the doctor. These are very brief 1-page letters, and only confirm your main appointment details/diagnosis/treatment plan. On average, these take 2-4 weeks to prepare.
• If you’re interested in a specific letter, report, or consideration of a specific script, you must let us know prior to the appointment as it may require a different service/fee.
• If you require a “medicolegal” report for court or other purposes, please note that none of our standard assessments will produce a report suitable for this purpose. Even if you discuss a medicolegal service / court report with our team prior to your assessment – this does not constitute an agreement to produce a medicolegal report. If we have not provided you with a customised official medicolegal quote sheet (which must specify that this is a quote for medicolegal services and must include the VAT calculation) and our specific medicolegal terms and conditions prior to your assessment, then you will not receive a suitable report and it cannot be endorsed for use in court/legal purposes of any kind whatsoever.
• Due to Covid-19 delays and closures, we would advise that all correspondence is carried out by email. Written correspondence to the clinic may face severe delays.