With people being required to wear face-coverings in several environments including public transport, shops and supermarkets, practices may get an increase in requests from patients to provide exemption letters.
Government guidance on face coverings including exemptions can be found here.
Practices have a contractual and legal obligation to provide patients with copies of their medical records. If requested by a patient, practices should provide the patient with either a copy of their notes or a summary which states the conditions which the patient is known to suffer with and have been documented in their medical record.
Risk assessing or producing a letter for a patient to be exempt from wearing a face covering is not part of the practice’s NHS obligations nor are GPs in a position to do this.
The government guidance on exemptions enables individuals to self-declare that they are exempt, medical evidence is not required.