RCT Registrar’s Update March 2015

Andy Mosson, the RCT Registrar, recently met Professor Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer, and Chris Harris from the Department of Health, who is responsible for non-registered groups, along with two representatives from the Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists, on behalf of the Alliance for Patient Safety, to press the case for statutory registration. RCCP presented some case studies of failures in the voluntary registration system which were very similar in nature to those prepared by RCT for the HCPC.

Andy reported: ‘It is very apparent that the DH view is not changing and accredited voluntary registration is still the DH preferred option. This is controlled by government policy and, although the officials can present opinions to the policy makers, they cannot make this policy themselves. They agreed to take the evidence on board but, particularly with an election looming, we should not expect any change soon. ’In the meeting, Professor Hill expressed disappointment that RCT had not come to an agreement with AHCS over registration and was surprised to hear the RCT’s view of events – that the offer from the Academy of a cluster register was unacceptable as it would have involved the majority of RCT registrants having to re-apply for registration through an expensive equivalence route.

Andy said: ‘I explained that, after our initial meeting with them, AHCS had not returned to us with any specific proposals and had left RCT with the understanding that AHCS did not want to combine the existing register with their own. Professor Hill was very surprised by this and will go back to AHCS to see if channels of communication could be re-opened. This also helped her understand why RCT felt pursuing accreditation independently was our only option.’

We are now in the final stages of our application to the PSA to become an Accredited Voluntary Register, with just a few more queries to answer before our application is considered by the PSA’s panel.

Further to the Registrar’s Update in September 2014; it has been decided to issue all Registrants with a one off certificate stating their year of registration, with instructions for interested parties to refer to the online register to check if the registration is still current. These will be forwarded in the next few weeks. Please keep your certificate safe as annual certificates are no longer issued. 

Following recent updates on the need for CPD, the audit is planned to start at the end of March.  Registrants will be selected at random and asked to submit details of their activities.  For those auditees who have been selected and need support there is help at hand.  A small number of assessors have kindly agreed to provide support this year and can be contacted through the RCT office.  Please read the Types of CPD activity and examples by clicking here.

The Equivalence Route pilot was discussed at the recent RCT Management Panel and has been successful in gaining agreement for the following Scopes of Practice:-

• Medical Engineering Technologist
• Radiation Engineering Technologist
• Rehabilitation Engineering Technologist

Further development work is ongoing in the areas of:-

• Renal Technologists
• Nuclear Medicine Technologist
• Radiation Physics Technologist
• Radiotherapy Physics Technologist

As soon as further information is available, details will be made available via the website.

The RCT Registrar