Home Office to change Doctors Fee agreement, everyone to pay

[Thorney]

I dont see what the fuss is about, I have to pay for doctors medical for race licences, its a rip off of course but its hardly an NHS style function, I want to race cars, so I need to have a medical, for which my doctors rips me off £85. I want a gun licence, same applies. Of course the fact i race professionally so I need a licence and I run a shooting range so I need a licence commercially is meaningless, I still pay. Way of the World I'm afraid.

[ordnance]

Thankfully no need for doctors letter in this part of the UK, but that could change.

[Gazza]

Thankfully no need for doctors letter in this part of the UK, but that could change.

Something I've never understood............with all the past troubles in NI you have more relaxed gun laws than we do in ze farzerland!

[shugie]

Move abroad? https://tranio.com/czech-republic/adt/1575316/

Pete

Learning Czech is far from easy though.

[dromia]

It is not a gun licence it is a certificate, it says so on the document.

[Pete]

Move abroad? https://tranio.com/czech-republic/adt/1575316/

Pete

Learning Czech is far from easy though.

Looks and sounds a bit like Russian to me but without the Cyrillic alphabet..........

Pete

[safetyfirst]

Did the BMA ever state a reason for their policy of non-cooperation?

Being asked to do more work for free when they’re already stretched?

[ordnance]

Thankfully no need for doctors letter in this part of the UK, but that could change.

Something I've never understood............with all the past troubles in NI you have more relaxed gun laws than we do in ze farzerland!

Maybe experience has shown most of the politicians here that legally owned firearms in civilian hands are not a problem, but illegally obtained firearms in criminals hands are.

[kevinww]

Bit in Sunday Express today around this seems its GCN (Gun Control Network) rearing its ugly head again.

[Fedaykin]

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".

Well as I raised in my nightmare renewal thread earlier this year Police Scotland are using the clause in the current legislation "At the Chief Constables discretion" to magic up all sorts of local rules when it comes to firearms licensing. The thing is as far as Police Scotland are concerned their political masters and those who pay the bills are in Holyrood not Westminster, the SNP government who have been eager to take control of Firearms licensing from the Home Office are happy supporters of this local policy interpretation.

As for being shafted by our representative organisations frankly that gives them too much credit, blame for this goes all round for not getting a reasonable agreement by failing to actually talk to the Doctors who would have to actually perform the task.

Personally I have no real issue with there being a fee for work done even if it is a cursory look at some notes, time costs money. What needed to have been agreed in the first place was:

1) An agreed fee structure
2) That is consistently applied
3) With an appropriate process put in place to allow people who have a GP that is anti gun and refuses to perform the task to provide an alternative mechanism to complete the exercise