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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
Competing interests:
No competing interests
23 June 2005
Jim Butler
Consultant A&E
North Manchester General Hospital, Delaunays Road, Crumpsall, Manchester. M8 5RB
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
Competing interests: No competing interests