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Doctors complain over G$41 daily licence fee
kaieteur News – For the past five years, medical practitioners, mainly doctors, have been paying an annual registration licence fee of $10,000 to the Guyana Medical Council.
Effective from December 1, 2021, they were instructed to now pay a fee of $15,000 annually, which means that their daily fee was increased from some $27 dollar to $41 a day.
The sudden increase in this fee has left some doctors complaining and outraged, because according to them, they were never consulted by the Council on the fee hike.
Table showing the new payment method for the medical practitioners.
Kaieteur News understands that five years ago, the annual registration was raised from $7000 to $10,000.A doctor, who requested anonymity, told Kaieteur News yesterday that it was only on December 2, he knew about the sudden increase after receiving an email from the Council.
The email reads “After careful deliberation the Medical Council of Guyana has decided to increase the licencing fee structure. The increase seeks to offset the increase in expenditure for the regulation of the practice.”
“We are very upset and disappointed in the Medical Council’s decision” one of the doctors said.
The doctor said it is not fair or correct, because they should have been consulted or given proper advisory on the sudden move.
Given that the global pandemic is still upon us, the medical practitioner said that they, too, endure hardships and the sudden increase in fee does not sit right with them.
Yesterday, this publication reached out to the Chairman of the Medical Council, Dr. Navindranauth Rambaran, who explained that the increases are necessary due to the increasing costs to carry out important statutory functions.
“Over the past several years, the Medical Council has been steadily improving the quality of its services to medical practitioners and its regulatory functions. These include promoting and hosting educational activities, keeping the fraternity informed via media, and a well-maintained modern webpage, giving access to relevant resources, including laws and regulations and educational activities. Processing and printing of certificates and retention of competent staff to carry out these and other functions of its secretariat,” Dr. Rambaran shared.
He added that the $5000 increase is far less than what most other countries in the Caribbean Region annual registration fees looks like.
When questioned if there was any consultation with the medical practitioners on the increase, he noted that there was consultation, but not every medical personnel was consulted.
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