Hey Mark, You've wasted a tenner mate. V stands for voluntary.

Yes the register is voluntary - at present! When HPC take over, and they will as the Government wants this to happen, it will be more expensive to join (£200?) and to renew (£60?).

By renewing your membership of the VRCT you are signing up to the codes of conduct for Clinical Technologists. If you fail to renew the it will cost you more to re-register. Once membership of the Association of Clinical Technologists (or whatever it's called) becomes compulsory for Band 5 jobs and over, what will happen to unregistered Techs then? (What happens to Physio's who become deregistered?)

£10 is not a lot to pay, It's tax deductable, and the fee pays for administration of the VRCT (not IPEM), this goes towards the provision of facilicties and the administration of the register.

If you aren't registered yet then I strongly urge you to do so and also to join one of the supporting institutions (IPEM, ART or IET) as then these institutions will administer your professional development in the first instance and not the HPC.

Andy

I paid my £10 without hesitation. I mean think about it, if 3000 people register, that generates £30,000. that is enough money to cover the admin costs and not a lot else. So I don't see any real issue.

Err.. what facilities?
Your £10 appears to get your details entered on a database and a certificate at the moment.

Please, someone, explain how the IPEM can manage the "Voluntary" register for only £10.00 per person yet, as is threatened, this will jump to upto £200 when compulsory?

Can I suggest the administrators of www.EBME contact IPEM on behalf of the members of this site.
As I've said before strenght in numbers.

I don't think IPEM will have that much say - it's the HPC that you'd have to pay around £200 for HPC registration I think. As a member of IPEM membership is something different from the VRCT and HPC regulation - IPEM only administers the register for now until it transfers to HPC.

Provision of meeting room for around 4 meetings per year of the assessor's panel at IPEM. Costs of administration for receiving applications, photocopying, sending to assessors, producing and sending certificates, processing renewals, etc.

Fees for HPC will be determined by HPC!

There is strength in numbers - 2832 (and rising) Technologists agree.

Andy,

How many of the 2832 were coerced into signing up? We were told that we would not be able to work if we did not join, so much for the Voluntary bit. It's about time that the VRCT was put to bed and a more appropiate method of regulation found. Not everybody who works on medcial equipment wants to belong to medical physics which is essentially what the VRCT is about. Plainly the VRCT is a tool devised by physicists to maintain the differential between themselves and us.

Whether I like it or not I think it's likely that in the future technicians working as Medical Engineering Technologists, under the AfC profiles, will have protected roles beyond certain grades that reflect their qualifications, responsibility and experience.

Until they leave I don't think anybody already in post in such a role will be compromised but if they want to progress in the NHS then non-registration will probably become a hinderance. If there is a requirement new starters filling such a vacancy will probably need to be registered.

The HPC is likely to regulate the job-roles with protected job-titles and specify the requirements for trainees working on lower grades, working towards this. effectively membership of a relevant professional body, e.g. IPEM will be mandatory, for CPD purposes, etc.

I think the level will be pitched at band 6 or 7 depending upon the job role, i.e. senior practitioner level or above. Progression beyond the practioner level, in a protected role, might be difficult since only job-roles with protected titles may be advertised at these grades.

This is what regulation is about - preventing those who don't have the necessary mix of relevant qualifications, experience and skills from putting patient, hence their own employer, at risk. Whether this is to limit financial or personal cost it's of benfefit to the employer and the profession.

Surely the potential of up to £50K+ per year at the top of the scale and "professional recognition & status" including the capability to move between jobs is worth the outlay of £200-£300 per annum if you meet the requirements?

The "professional recognition & status" bit may be a crock of sh*t to people with attitudes like mine but I still believe that if you're a professional then you need to have demonstrated it and experienced it at the appropriate level sometimes.

Most senior practitioners would be on up to £32K for doing a job most find interesting, since that's what's on offer in NHS medical engineering departments for those who meet the requirements of the VRCT, typically. Not a fortune but it's a living.