Post #19 of the thread below is pretty useful if you want to save some money. I'm getting it signed by any old pal & I'll stamp it at work;
http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showt...hamonix&page=2
Post #19 of the thread below is pretty useful if you want to save some money. I'm getting it signed by any old pal & I'll stamp it at work;
http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showt...hamonix&page=2
I'm sorry but I have to pull you up on this one because you're talking ill-informed nonsense:Originally Posted by spring heeled jack
1) 5 years at medical school - tuition fees of £3,000 per annum in addition to general University costs. Most medical students come out of University with about £30,000 debts.
2) Starting salary for a Pre-Registration House Officer based on a 40 hour working week is £20,000 - any extra pay is accounted for in the extra unsociable hours they have to work, up to 60 hours per week. Hardly fantastic wages bearing in mind the £30,000 debt you've just built up
3) After University, it's still another 5 years of continuous assessment until they are at the stage to become a practicing GP or a Consultant, working silly hours (like 9pm - 10:30am, 9 days on the trot) for not fantastic wages.
Doctors are obviously intelligent and chose to do the job to help people; they could have probably made much more money if they had gone into a different profession such as Law.
I don't blame them for going private to be honest when they have to put up with the crap that's been written on here.
Last edited by TheHeathens; 21-06-2008 at 04:32 PM.
Pete, I share your frustration but the point has already been made about some things not being covered by the GP contract with the NHS. Most people do not realise that when the NHS was set up, hospital doctors became NHS employees but GPs did not. They are independant contractors with the NHS so the problem lies with the nature of the contract between the NHS and GPs. And, as we all know, until very recently, the average medics view of a sporting injury was that it was a self inflicted injury and it would receive very little sympathy compared to someone who presented with diabetes because they ate too much crap food or lung disease coz they smoked like a bleedin' chimbly. THing is, GP's get paid for sorting out those things, but the sports med side gets such a raw deal. There is hope on the horizon with the Faculty for Sports and Exercise Medicine now being official and a few (VERY few) NHS funded training posts in Sprts Medicine now appearing.
I think you should write to the BMA and your MP, if only to get the issue raised a little.
doesnt your uka card count as a fitness for competition licence?
I know most GP's (who are a sort of private sub contractors to the NHS if i remember rightly) charge for health certs for rig workers and people needing occupational health clearence, so it doesnt seem to harsh for them to charge for non NHS work like a fitness cert to run round three countries and a bloody big mountain.
If you need health certification for work then I'd guess that your employer would probably pick up the tab. I've no objection to paying for a medical certificate for sport, but the £90 figure suggested above seems excessive.
Quite correct - your EA card will do just that.
In the past I've used my EA (or NoEAA!!) card in lieu of a doctor's certificate in championship races both France and Switzerland with no problems - if you do race regularly abroad, it makes affiliation worth it.
I think it has ALREADY been paid for, both by myself as a tax and NI payer for 40 years and by the PCT contract:Apparently as an over 45 years old, I should get "regular" checkups. As I have NEVER had one,and as the only examination the GP did was a Blood Pressure check, then surely that is part of a "regular" check up. the ONLY additional task for the GP was a signature on a form. Surely £10 should cover that.
I think the GP is guilty of 1) charging twice for the same service 2) charging what he feels like without reference to any overseeing body.
More than that I think the NHS should spend a few of its resources on PREVENTIVE care instead of all of it on people who have to wait till they are so ill they are almost beyond help, before they can get a look in.
Thanks to all those who have responded,yes I will forge future certificates,and yes I will take this up withe the BMA for the reasons stated above!
Peter our political system is based on 'need' and self sacrifice, not on self interest. The money you've paid in taxes over the years have been spent on others. That is the nature of our NHS and political system.
According to this country's moral code people have to be supported by the state, therefore someone has to be sacrificed. That somebody is you.
If you're against the NHS in principle, and support a private system then I sympathise with you. If on the other hand you support the NHS, then aren't you getting what you asked for? Or did you imagine that your turn to be sacrificed would never come?
Ooooh... I love it when you talk politics Chris.
The thing is Margarine, people complain about the consequences of our political system, but don't oppose the cause of such a system.
The socialist policy of redistributing wealth requires the government to sacrifice some individuals or groups to pay for such redistribution.
Whilst on the receiving end people are quite happy getting money they haven't earned, but as soon as it's their money that's being confiscated, it's all tears.
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