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LETTERS: Brian D Keighley The General Medical Council and the future of revalidation: GMC member responds BMJ 2005; 330: 1446 [Full text]

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GMC annual fees, is your direct debit working?

Jim Butler   (22 June 2005)

GMC annual fees, is your direct debit working? 22 June 2005
Jim Butler, Consultant A&E North Manchester General Hospital, Delaunays Road, Crumpsall, Manchester. M8 5RB Send response to journal: Re: GMC annual fees, is your direct debit working?	We are rapidly approaching the August changeover, which is when the majority of medical practitioners need to renew their GMC subscription. You will probably have received a letter from the GMC about switching to quarterly direct debit, which on the face of it is a good idea. I tried to switch a while ago, but the only result seems to have been the loss of my current annual DD mandate, and not enough time to be sure of setting up a new debit for this year. Having recently had to employ locums to cover one of my juniors who didn’t send his cheque in time, I am a bit paranoid about this sort of thing. However I am somewhat concerned that the only way I discovered my DD mandate had been cancelled was when I went to my shiny new myGMC webpage to see when the quarterly payments would be going out, it would appear that apart from a message saying "annual fee overdue", they weren’t going to bother notifying me (I will be pleased if I am wrong on this!). Fortunately the GMC can now take credit card payments online, so all is not lost I strongly suggest that everyone who has tried to change to the quarterly DD scheme makes sure that their renewal fee gets paid, and that they check that their colleagues do the same. Being suspended in August won't be any fun! Competing interests: None declared