Apologies, but it has been some time since I updated you all. I hope the information below gives you an overview of the work we have been doing but, as ever, please do let me know if you have any questions. My email address is at the end of this blog post.
Annual representative meeting and new session
We had an active ARM in Brighton in June. There was very healthy debate of a number of issues and clear divisions between groups of members over several topics. You can read about all of the motions passed and listen to some of the speeches on the website.
We are now starting a new session and, on behalf of both Stephen Millar and myself, thank you for electing us back as respectively your deputy chair and chair of our retired members committee. The first meeting of the RMC this session will be on the 23 September. Work on our issues will obviously be ongoing in the meantime.
The new UK Council had its first meeting of the session last week. John Chisholm, previous BMA president, is now in the elected retired member seat on council and will thus be invited as an ex officio member of the RMC. I continue to attend council as BoP (branch of practice) chair. There are other members of UK council who are in receipt of their pensions and could consider themselves as retired members if they so wished. Many fail to realise that you can register an interest in more than one BoP and they could indicate retired as well as another BoP.
Secretariat
There is ongoing staff restructuring within the BMA which has not yet fully worked through and may or may not impact the staffing of our secretariat. At the moment we still have Laura Clark and Winifred Annan while Alyssa D’Agostino has moved on to work with the BMA GPs committee and Jonny Carey has returned from secondment to the BMA consultants committee.
Reconfiguration of local structures
The proposal to overhaul the BMA’s local structures continues to take time and be challenging. Some enabling changes to articles and bye-laws were rejected at the ARM in June. For the moment at least we still have the divisional structures backed up by local negotiating committees and local medical committees as appropriate. Clearly divisions are not universally active and there are many parts of the UK with no provision.
A part of the suggested changes included retired members receiving separate representation at regional and devolved nation level, with divisions at local level more clearly focused on trade union activity. This is now effectively on hold along with the other changes but may be something we need to pursue separately, as prior to the consultation on divisional structures we had identified the need for some hierarchical changes for retired members – particularly where they did not have an active division in which to participate.
We continue to discuss with organisation committee as appropriate the issues as we see them impacting on members across the BoP and possible configuration of solutions. To be clear, we as a committee have agreed that there is a need to consider a refresh of our structures and that the current divisional system which is at the heart of the BMA is not working well in many places.
If you would like to read the retired members committee response to the local structures working group, please email Laura Clark and she will send you a copy.
Assisted dying
This is now law in Jersey and will be implemented.
In the Isle of Man, Royal Assent was held up by the Ministry of Justice although it is hoped that this can now progress as changes have been made and it has been returned for assent.
In England, the last bill timed out with a huge number of amendment proposals in the Lords. It is expected that it will be re-presented to the Commons in the same form as it went to the Lords and if so should progress assuming it's still supported in the Commons.
In Wales, the Sened has taken the position that should there be change in England they will enact the same legislation in Wales.
In Scotland, the bill before Holyrood narrowly failed and there are currently no apparent plans to take anything else forward.
You can read comprehensive information about the BMA’s position on physician assisted dying on the website.
Membership subscriptions
Most BMA membership subscriptions have been increased by £36 a year – including those for retired members. The retired members subscription was formerly linked to the lowest income band subscription. However, this link was broken a couple of years ago and now the retired member subscription is higher than the lowest clinical income rate and this year the retired rate increased by the highest percentage of any membership type.
Subscription rates have been discussed at length within the committee and with others and we are aware that the Treasurer has no appetite to decrease the retired member subscription rate. It is, however, clear that retirement is no longer a binary event and many continue with some clinical work into retirement. There is, therefore, a proposal which will be discussed further by your committee, that we should dispense with the retired member rate and simply rely on the various income based rates on the basis of any clinical income. I would welcome your views on this proposal.
Financial advice
Fidelius Medical is the company that provides BMA members with tailored independent financial advice. A useful discussion was had with Fidelius staff at the ARM in Brighton and we are hoping to develop sessions targeted particularly for retired members.
Civil or conflict emergencies
The reports continue to come from the COVID Inquiry. What is clear is that we were not properly prepared for the pandemic when it came and that sadly we seem to be little better now. We are also seeing considerable conflict across the world and disruption of long-established international relationships.
The question will be when, rather than if, we will see a further national emergency and need to increase the resilience of our health care provision. To this end, there is ongoing consideration of governance and associated issues and, in particular in our case, arrangements to allow retired doctors to return to supporting care delivery.
Pensions and McCloud remedy
Sadly, I have nothing positive to report. There are a majority of retired members still awaiting statements that are required before making a decision. There continue to be issues getting pensions paid out on time for some. Please do be persistent and let the pensions department at the BMA know about any issues you are facing.
Life membership
At the moment, BMA life membership is awarded after 50 years of membership, a figure which we understand was arrived at arbitrarily many years ago. Motions passed at conference require us to work towards this being reduced to a more appropriate figure. It is the committee’s belief that, if life membership arrived closer to 'retirement' more colleagues might be encouraged to carry on membership into retirement – aware that life membership would be not far away. In particular, we want to improve gender balance among retired members and address a perceived potential failure to retain female colleagues into retirement. Any thoughts about these and related issues would be most welcome to help us define an optimal way forward.
News from you
We would be very interested to hear what activities you are all getting up to in retirement particularly where these result from skills developed as a doctor. We will, if enough becomes available, be looking to share some of these among colleagues.
As always we welcome anything from you who we represent.
Peter Curry
BMA retired members committee chair
Laura Clark
BMA retired members committee secretariat