It is early in the new year, so it must be time for the GOC to be demanding their fees again – probably around the fortieth time for me.
I wonder if their finance department has ever heard of monthly or even quarterly direct debits?
It must be nice to have all your income in by March 31 each year, not to mention the extra interest received. Does this august organisation ever consider that we, their paymasters, might also have cashflow issues? Some fortunate employees are reimbursed by their employers, but many are not – especially the self-employed. So why, when we can pay monthly for insurance, car tax, power and council tax,can the GOC not figure out how to do the same?
If the GOC cannot afford to offer this monthly or quarterly facility, why do they not move from their expensive London premises to the provinces like other organisations are doing? They do not have to be in London for what they do. It is just snobbery.
I would not mind so much if the GOC was great at what they do, but this is by no means the case. They take years to deliberate on colleagues’ futures, they have allowed a free-for-all on the number of qualifying institutions that will flood the profession and further drive down salaries. They have done virtually nothing about supply of offshore online contact lenses and spectacles, which are flooding in undercutting our businesses and damaging patients’ eyes.
The GOC’s remit is to protect the public not to persecute us.
Jonathan Brook, Bury