From what I read, this is a specialist medical report, requiring
a specialist to give an opinion with respect to the medical
condition. A specialist report is often requested for insurance
purposes, or to determine suitability for NS training, claims for
work injuries, appeals in license renewal etc. It is also a
medico-legal document which can and often is submitted to the
courts in legal proceedings.
The preparation of a specialist medical report will require a
specialist (not necessarily and often not the patient's doctor, who
may have moved elsewhere) to review the case notes and form an
opinion with regard to the question raised ie. whether the person
is suitable for a job or NS training, or the likelihood of recovery
from a work injury.
Depending on the complexity of the case, it often takes an hour or
longer to prepare a specialist report. The charges reflect the time
taken by the specialist to prepare that report, during which time
he is taken away from his routine work and cannot see patients or
perform other procedures.
If all the patient needs is to photocopy the case notes, it would
be much cheaper but a stack of notes with unintelligible medical
jargon would not be useful for most people. Actually, the cost is
not that high if we consider how much it would cost to go to a
lawyer just to make a statutory declaration. All the lawyer has to
do is to certify that you have signed the statement that you
yourself have prepared and the process takes a few minutes. But you
expect to pay just as much, if not more.
