Daylight Robbery

I sometimes wonder where all the money goes. Not all of my money personnally. I know where that goes: on booze and the good times. No, I mean all the money that the GMC and the Royal Colleges rake in in the form of fees for compulsory registration and examinations, respectively.

For example, the current cost of registration is some £290. For this paltry sum, one gets ones name added to the medical register. Wooohooo. Now, in 2004, there were 140,000 doctors in England alone. Based on that figure, that would be an annual income of roughly £40 million. Not a bad for keeping a list up to date, I'd say. If anybody can tell me what other useful function the GMC fulfills that might explain where some of that whopping wad of cash goes, I would be interested to hear.

The Royal College of Physcians on the other hand charges £295, £295 and £480 for the parts 1, 2 and 3 of its compulsory examination for membership. Should you be lucky enough to pass, it then charges you a further £200 for the privilege of a certificate. Most people spend an additional small fortune on courses and books to help them get through the exam, but I will ignore this as it does not go directly to the College. Thus, the absolute minimum you could spend to obtain your membership is £1270. Given that there were around 20,000 SHOs in England in 2004 - who will take on average 2 years to obtain membership - the College must, therefore, have an approximate annual income from its examinations of (1,270*20,000/2=) £25 million. And what does it provide in return for this? Absolutely sweet F.A.

I have an image of some College fat cat, Rolex on one hand and cigar in the other, waiving the latest cheque to pop through that esteemed institution's golden letter box, whilst he bellows out across the room to his rotund, red-faced chum: "so, Henry, still on for supper at the Ritz tonight? Looks like dinner's on...(squints through monocle to read cheque)...a certain Dr Sinner tonight. Charming!"