EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues VRCT - Who's Re-Newed?

The Voluntary Register of Clinical Technologists (VRCT) was founded in August 2000 with the primary task of taking forward the case for regulating the Clinical Technologist profession. In October 2004 the Health Professions Council (HPC) agreed that the Clinical Technologist profession should be regulated. In the intervening years the VRCT has been working with the Department of Health to ensure that all of the necessary requirements are in place for the regulation of the profession to go ahead.

The above is the first paragraph on the VRCT website homepage.

Can't get any plainer english than that.

Do you class yourself as a Healthcare Scientist ? ( Err, No)
As well as using medical equipment, do you service / maintain or repair it ? (Yes)

Then you are not by definition a Clinical Technologist in the accepted sense of the word.

Cant get anymore direct than that.

What does a 'clinical technologist' do, if the pay is good can I be one?

a) That's a moot point
b) You can be one too (if you like)

OK, so someone a long time ago came up with the description of clinical technologist. We are all known by different job titles. It depends where you work in the country. That is a fact that we have lived with for some time.

From the VRCT application guidlines:

CRITERIA FOR ENTRY TO THE REGISTER

The Voluntary Register of Clinical Technologists is open to all persons employed or
seeking employment in a technical role in the field of medical physics, clinical
engineering, medical equipment maintenance or medical equipment manufacturing.
Individuals who wish to join the Register are likely to come from the following settings: -

1. Those employed in the public or private healthcare sectors, and, who work in medical
physics, clinical engineering, medical equipment maintenance or medical equipment
manufacturing. Job titles may vary significantly but may include:-

Clinical Technologist, Dosimetrist, Medical Technologist, Nuclear Medicine
Technician, Biomedical Repair Technician, Medical Physics Technician, Medical
Electronics Technician, Mould Room Technician, Medical Technical Officer, X-ray
Engineer, Rehabilitation Engineer, Medical Equipment Technician, Service Engineer,
Renal Technician. This list is not exhaustive.

Criteria for Entry by occupation is one thing, the approved primary route of Entry for those who do not meet the Grand Parenting Provision eligibility is another issue completely.

"You must have successfully completed an approved vocational education programme, or, an approved training scheme.
There are currently two approved training schemes run by the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and the Association of Renal Technologists (ART). A list of approved vocational education programmes can be found on the VRCT website"

Currently the VRCT has only 2 approved training scheme providers, namely Institute
of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and the Association of Renal
Technologists (ART)

As yet, there are no accreditated training schemes available on a national basis.
Some serious thought needs to be given to entry routes after 31 December 2011.

Glad it's not a exclusive list as I've just noticed HR have given me yet another title, apparently I'm now a 'Clinical Engineering Technician'. Yes they do like to change the titles in the NHS.

As for the lack of training centres check out IPEM but as I said earlier, there does seem a lot of Trusts missing from the list.

Also Geoff I accept that incidence do get overlooked by the HPC but then again what good has IPEM or the IET ever done in this area? When was the last time they actually asked you to prove that your abiding by their rules? Basically the rules stated earlier are no better than the VRCT, as long as you pay your money your still a member of either of them.

Also if your not a member of either your not bound by their rules, so saying your governed by Engineering council is pointless.

I have nothing further to add to this thread.

It is obvious that folk here are divided into two camps, neither of which is likely to change sides.

Personally I am not in any of the organisations mentioned, but did manage to get T.Eng (now I.Eng) added to my name many (many) years ago. The society I was once a member of is now long gone, but although I never got anything out of it myself, it was governed by (what is now called) the Engineering Council.

So what? Big Deal. Ho hum. Finitto.

Hi Biomed,

You have quoted the intro to the VRCT which states that it started in 2000. My colleagues and I only found out about it in 2005. What were they doing in the meantime? Certainly not garnering opinions of the people whom they intend to lord-it over (sorry, regulate). As far as I can tell they never sought the opinions of anyone outside of Medical Physics! We only found out about the VRCT when we merged with Medical Physics, this despite working in the same City and being a bigger department.

p.s. Biomed, will you be changing your profile name if you become a Clinical Technologist? We might try and get the title Biomed protected.