Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to pay

Anything shooting related including law and procedure questions.

Moderator: dromia

Forum rules
Should your post be in Grumpy Old Men? This area is for general shooting related posts only please.
Message
Author
User avatar
phaedra1106
Past Supporter
Posts: 3384
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:37 pm
Location: Just outside Sacriston (the nice bit!)
Contact:

Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to pay

#1 Post by phaedra1106 »

Looks like the shooting community is about to be shafted yet again.

Statement from BASC.

BASC opposes new Home Office proposals to make every gun owner pay a fee to their GP when applying for a shotgun or firearm certificate.

Following a meeting on Tuesday with Nick Hurd, the minister responsible for firearm licensing, BASC understands the Home Office plans to abandon the current system agreed in 2016.

This decision follows a campaign of non-cooperation by the British Medical Association (BMA) to the agreement on improving medical involvement in the licensing system reached following extensive negotiations by the Medical Evidence Working Group, which included representatives of the Home Office, police, the shooting community and doctors.

Christopher Graffius, BASC’s director of communications, said: “This will be regarded by the shooting community as a betrayal by government.

“It will discriminate against those who require a firearm as a tool of their job, damage participation in shooting sports and its benefits to the country and alienate a community which is a natural supporter of the government a month before the local elections.”

The proposals will see the Home Office renege on the agreement reached in 2016 which stated that applicants were not required to pay a fee to GPs for their response to an initial police medical letter sent on application. It ensured that applicants would not be disadvantaged by a GP’s refusal to provide medical information.

It was also agreed that GPs would implement a system that saw them add an encoded ‘marker’ to the medical records of those who own guns. The shooting community considered this a sensible step towards ensuring public safety.

While the Home Office does not keep records, BASC believes less than one per cent of initial firearms licensing applicants are rejected on medical grounds.

Mr Graffius added: “BASC has been told by the Home Office that it is planning to insist every firearms certificate holder consults their GP and pays a fee on application and renewal of their certificate.

“The figures are not yet clear, but this will be in addition to the fee already payable to the police and could increase the total cost of an application by more than 50 per cent.

“This is an abandonment of risk management in the licensing system, may contravene Treasury rules and is completely disproportionate because we believe that less than one per cent of certificates are rejected on medical grounds.

“These proposals will damage the relationship between the shooting community and the government.

“Agreement was reached by all parties, including the doctors, who sat around the table for many, many hours before approving the licensing scheme in 2016.

“If these proposals are introduced without consultation, it will reflect badly on both the government and the medical profession and, in the eyes of the shooting community, erode confidence in both.”

BASC had previously asked the Home Office to reconvene the Medical Evidence Working Group in an attempt to strike an agreement with the medical profession that would satisfy all stakeholders.
There's room for all Gods creatures, next to the mash and gravy :)
User avatar
shugie
Past Supporter
Posts: 1602
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:42 pm
Home club or Range: Sperry at Bisley
Location: near Reading
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#2 Post by shugie »

Did the BMA ever state a reason for their policy of non-cooperation?
Careful now/that sort of thing
User avatar
dromia
Site Admin
Posts: 19964
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:57 am
Home club or Range: The Highlands of Scotland. Cycling Proficiency 1964. Felton & District rifle club. Teesdale Pistol and Rifle club.
Location: Sutherland and Co Durham
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#3 Post by dromia »

I don't think that the shooting community has had any confidence in the government or medical profession for years just as the government has had no respect for the shooting community.

For years these "national" organisations shysters have had their heads buried up to their heels in the sand over the anti legal gun ownership agenda of society, the government and its institutions and have done nothing effective to proactively promote our concerns they just sit there twiddling their thumbs putting out fake propaganda and pretending all in the world is hunky dory and we pay them money to do this?!?!?!

Obviously this is just another cynical ploy by an opportunist government to further their back door anti gun agenda hoping to capitalise on the current US anti gun ground swell.

This just shows how absolutely ineffectual our so called "representative" "national" organisations are in defending legal gun ownership in the UK.

If "it will reflect badly on both the government and the medical profession and, in the eyes of the shooting community, erode confidence in both.” Is the only thing we will use to resist this then we would be better off bringing on the "comfy chairs"!
Image

Come on Bambi get some

Imperial Good Metric Bad
Analogue Good Digital Bad

Fecking stones

Real farmers don't need subsidies

Cow's farts matter!

For fine firearms and requisites visit

http://www.pukkabundhooks.com/
User avatar
Pete
Past Supporter
Posts: 2947
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:48 am
Home club or Range: NRA Bisley
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#4 Post by Pete »

So, it looks like a case of suck it up or pack it in as far as recreational shooters are concerned............or move abroad............

Pete
"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum" Lucretius
You're offended? Please explain why your inability to control your emotions translates into me having to censor my opinions....
User avatar
bradaz11
Sporadic Site Supporter
Posts: 4714
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:23 am
Home club or Range: The tunnel at Charmouth, BWSS
Location: Bristol
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#5 Post by bradaz11 »

So docs say they won't comply. Goal posts get moved to make them happy.
We say we won't comply. Lose our FAC's
When guns are outlawed, only Outlaws will have guns
User avatar
GeeRam
Posts: 1160
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2015 9:58 pm
Home club or Range: PSC, Bisley
Location: Berks
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#6 Post by GeeRam »

Pete wrote:So, it looks like a case of suck it up or pack it in as far as recreational shooters are concerned............or move abroad............
Yep.

Did anyone seriously expect anything else as time goes by?

They (Govt and anti's) will win eventually, I have no doubt about that, its just a question of how long?
User avatar
Pete
Past Supporter
Posts: 2947
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:48 am
Home club or Range: NRA Bisley
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#7 Post by Pete »

"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum" Lucretius
You're offended? Please explain why your inability to control your emotions translates into me having to censor my opinions....
BooBoo
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 9:37 pm
Home club or Range: Various
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#8 Post by BooBoo »

For the GP's, this is primarily about both money and risk.

Their place at medical school is subsidised by the NHS, whilst the cost of pre, post and GP training rotations are all met out of the public purse. However, at the point that they take on a practice, they effectively become self employed whilst still working under the notional banner of the NHS. So, the tax payer pays... and at no stage are these costs recouped.

Some may recall the Health Secretary suggesting last year that Doctors who leave to work overseas post training for a better "work life balance" should be expected to repay a proportion of their training costs. This was of course met with an outcry by the likes of the GMC and the RCGP...

In the Doctors mind is "I am worth x pounds an hour" (and that is a very large x in GP land), so who is paying me to review an applicants medical records and write a letter accepting risk? The fact that GP's receive an annual patient levy is neither here nor there for as far as they are concerned, they are a business... They may never see that patient for years on end, but they still take the money.

Cake and eating it springs to mind.

The above is before you even start on those that have an individual objection to the shooting sports / ownership of firearms and so on.
User avatar
Pete
Past Supporter
Posts: 2947
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:48 am
Home club or Range: NRA Bisley
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#9 Post by Pete »

Both myself and my partner have renewed in the last year, (her's was in Feb.) without any communication from our GP.

Pete
"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum" Lucretius
You're offended? Please explain why your inability to control your emotions translates into me having to censor my opinions....
BooBoo
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 9:37 pm
Home club or Range: Various
Contact:

Re: Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to

#10 Post by BooBoo »

Like you, I have been renewed in the last year. This was also without GP return.

The reason why is that a lot of GP's will not return a reply without payment.

Some forces like Scotland refuse to renew unless they have the letter - this effectively forces the applicant to pay the GPs fee or else no FAC. They have a "we will do what we want" policy outside of guidelines.

Many forces however follow HO guidance in that if no reply is received within 21 days then they grant regardless (the Doctor has had the chance)...

A real mess... and hence the latest proposal to "we will impose a charge".
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 16 guests