EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues VRCT Website Updates

My thoughts as well, scaremongering and coercion tactics have been applied, rather than highlighting benefits of membership. That, and the failure to achieve anything tangible, or to put necessary entry structures in place have convinced me to save £10 this January.

I have found it increasingly difficult to recommend membership to colleagues, when faced with the inept way that it is managed.

@Rob (and Chris, et al)

On the other hand, if there were tangible (and positive) benefits to being on the Register, no doubt folk would be happy to shell out £ 50 a year!

But again I wonder ... what would (or could) such benefits possibly be?

1) A proper foundation training scheme and credible continued training "pathway" (structure)?
2) A decent newsletter ... with "technical updates" etc.?
3) Social events ... ?
4) Assistance with job placements
5) A fund for helping biomeds in need?
6) An internet forum ... ? (now there's a thought)!

Good points Geoff!

But as far as I am concerned the inability and inactivity displayed so far is indicative of the management failure to project a credible Biomed representative body within the U.K.
When you lose the confidence and support of the people who "perform the job" on a daily basis, you only have two possible outcomes.

1. Rethink and revamp to address the membership concerns as a matter of urgency.

2. Membership / support and credibility continuing to drop away.

My personal decision reflects the most probable outcome based on nearly four years of patiently waiting for promises to be delivered.

To lose something you need to have had it in the first place.

I take it that your management still support it then Sean? Our apprentices have been following a traditional engineering apprenticeship and training of staff has been from manufacturers. So if someone decides to leave the VRCT there's currently no way back in.

Also sounds like you've just described the IET Geoff, if you add a virtual library to the list.

No Chris, local Biomed management (myself included) no longer actively support, or insist upon VRCT membership for new or experienced Biomed staff. I prefer to check their skills and competence through practical methods, as opposed to ensuring that they hold an increasingly irrelevant certificate.

When it comes to advertising new Biomed posts, VRCT membership is...
Not essential, not desirable,and no longer relevant.
(So if someone leaves the VRCT it doesnt really matter, if you want a job in this NHS Trust).

Those employers (public or private sector) who continue to "insist" upon membership as a recruiting requirement, are going to have to draw upon a decreasing pool* of labour for Biomed posts. And let's face it, would you want to apply for a position where the employer insists you are a member of a voluntary register which lacks credibility amongst a proportion of the U.K. Biomedical fraternity?

*For clarification, there are only two accredited training scheme providers approved by the VRCT for membership eligibility by the primary criterion route. Subject areas cover Nuclear medicine, Radiotherapy, Radiation, Renal or Rehabilitation. So if you have Biomedical Engineering related degree you are not eligible for membership (which rather defeats the object of the exercise).

@Chris: the IET is all very well, but it's hardly focused on "biomed", is it?

@Sean: sounds like "Medical Physics" to me, Mate.

well Geoff in the last few years they've been a bit more E in M than IPeM, but they do generalise on engineering.

Will 2013 be the death of VRCT, will a new body arise out of the ashes?

Is the VRCT fit for what we do; service equipment?
The job is an on the tools engineering discipiline and the present conditions of membership woefully misses the practical skills that the job requires.