To be furious about the hike in registration fees for the NMC?

[FreddieMercuryforQueen]

News out today has said the NMC has raised the annual registration fee for nurses and midwives from £76 per year to £100 per year. The justification for which is given as rising costs due to increasing numbers of fitness to practice hearings. The NMC is an ineffective organisation, a law unto themselves and do very little real work in maintaining standards, wasting millions per year on hearings that are full of unsubstantiated claims and incidents that would be thrown out of any real court. I'm livid that as a healthcare worker I have to pay not only to go to work but also now have to pay more to a governing body that has very little support in the workforce for a service that is very poorly run. Sorry. Rant over.

Yes, so we all as good nurses have to pay for the bad Nurses. I wish they would let us pay for it by monthly direct debit to.

We're not even going to get the little card now either when we've paid our fees !

What?? It's a blimmin joke I tell you! Makes my teeth hurt that we actually have to pay a yearly fee to have the right work. Arghhh.

Errr right TO work

I had no idea that midwives had to actually pay an annual fee to work! What is the justification for any fee, let alone a hike?

It pisses me off too. But, it's not just nurses who pay to be registered - anyone know how much other AHPs and social workers pay for registration?

Ehhhh l must be living on planer zogg, l hadn't heard andy of this. My fees are due next week and l have already sent the paperwork off for PREP..when does the rise take effect and what do we get, if anything, instead of a card???

Bastards.

I think it's the same for a lot of people and professions there is a furious debate about the hike in registration fees (up from £80 to £92.80) & RIBA fees for architects (up 3.5% to £385) at a time when the majority of the profession is underemployed and many barely avoiding redundancy and we retain little tangible benefit from the fees although the registration ones are compulsory.

I'm even more pissed off, because I'll be on mat. leave when mine are due . I also had to pay them for 18 months when there were no flaming jobs to be had.

And they are a waste of time. Have you read the hearings! I despair.

Yes, as a social worker I have already paid about £50 to the original registering body for this year, and now I have to pay another £152 for the next two years. That's quite an increase!

You mean I won't even receive that flimsy bit of laminated card for my money?
Fuckers.

I once visited their lush offices in London. The tour guide delighted in pointing out the huge bespoke carpet done in nmc colours.
I'm struggling to pay all the bills every month. Nice to know where my money goes.

Doctors currently pay £420 for GMC registration (less for the first 2 years after qualification). We get the luxury of paying in quarterly installments though. I

Nothing instead of a card, just the PIN on the confirmation letter. At least thats what it said when I got my registration letter confirmation in August (I got another card, but letter.said it was stopping in Sep 2012)

Me too Freddie, I'm so pissed off at the whole thing. I took part in their consultation about this in the summer and one document I read stated that if they had just stuck to regulation rather than branching out (badly) into education and what not they would have had ample money to cover it from the fees we pay now.

I also really resent paying for a smart building in London which doesn't do nurses any good at all, the NMC could do the work just as well from an industrial estate somewhere. Every time I've gone over to them I wasn't even allowed into the building proper, I had to wait in a horrible, gloomy and to be frank, not too clean waiting room.
If I could I wouldn't pay them anything, its just good money after bad.

Scuse me if I'm teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs here!

You do claim your tax back off HMRC, don't you?

All professional fees are tax-deductible. I pay £76 a year for one, $240 for another and £94 for a third, and I have to have all of them! I phone up the tax office and tell them the amounts, every year, and they tweak my tax code.

The foctors professional body also tends to be on their side. There to support its members. The NMC don't.

Posted too soon. I also have to pay another £500 for membership of my speciality college.

I pay £120 pa to stay on General Dental Council register as a dental hygienist. The fee has gone up in recent times due to the number of fitness to practice hearings.

Yeah, got my "card" today...minus the card. Same letter as usual, it's a good job I'd already read that the card was stopping, or I'd have thought someone had nicked it!

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StillIRise - its like the NMC has to prove how serious it is by flogging anyone who comes up in front of it. I'm really quite terrified of ever having to defend myself against them.

I cried reading some of the 'evidence' in their cases.

We dont even get the card then?? Just as well I havent phoned up trying to replace mine then.

We don't get a certificate anymore either! Just a crappy letter .