15.12.15
GMC increases annual fee for doctors by £5, but frozen for those in training
The General Medical Council (GMC) is to increase the annual fee doctors pay to stay licensed with them by £5 next year, from £420 to £425.
For doctors who are registered without a licence the annual retention fee (ARF) will rise by £2 to £152.
But the fee paid by medical school graduates to become provisionally registered with the GMC will be frozen at £90, and the fee to move from provisional to full registration will be kept at £200. Fees for the postgraduate Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) have also been frozen at £420.
Niall Dickson, CEO of the GMC, said: “We are determined that any rise in the annual retention fee will be kept to a minimum. The level of the ARF next year will be just over 1% above what it was in 2010.
“This small increase and the steps we will take as part of our efficiency programme are necessary to make sure we remain financially sustainable as an organisation.”
To help the GMC achieve significant cost reduction and support more effective ways of working in the future, next year it plans to move around 130 posts from London to Manchester and reform its defined benefit pension scheme for staff. The aim is to save up to £6m a year by 2018.
“Overall we are in good financial health and it is important that we stay that way,” said Dickson. “With a much smaller London base, Manchester will become the main centre of the GMC’s operations and the organisation will maintain a presence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
Most of the increase to the ARF will cover the first full year of the levy imposed by the government on the GMC to fund the work of the Professional Standards Authority. The GMC's contribution in 2016 will be £736,000.