Class 1 Medical Renewal Cost
 

What are people generally paying these days for Class 1 Medical renewal? I've been quoted:


Aclass 1 renewal medical with ecg and audio, without lipid testing is £301.20 inc VAT.

Does this not seem a little expensive? It's almost the same cost as an inital?!

AMC in Slovenia:
- 40 € AME general examination
- 10 € medical license issue
- 8 € ECG
- 55 € laboratory / urine and blood (hemo, sedimentation, sugat, gama st, ast, alt, lipids)

113 €.

Can be around 60 € if not done in this AMC (company related).

It depends where you are in your cycle.

Every 5 years you need the ECG and whatever, and I would usually expect to pay £200-£250 for that.

The rest without it, I've paid anything from £50-£150.

So why has it gone up 1,000% from my early days? Something to do with the fact my house went up 8,000% I suppose.

Type rating exam with the ARB. Three quid as well. Gross pay as a FO, for a time at least, would have purchased 1 1/2 detached houses in 1970.

Inflation, bad. Stability good.

When will folk learn money is a tool, and if you went into work every morning and all yer spanners were a different size, you'd rightly be pi$$ed orf.

Rant over.

I just paid £240 for an initial at NATS in Swanwick. Very friendly and helpful and took not much more than hour (as the nurse does most of the routine tests one after another instead of you having to go back to a waiting room), but I guess it depends where you need to travel from as to whether the saving on the medical is worth it. They have their own medical department for ATCO medicals and have just been approved to do Class I initials, think they have been able to do renewals for a while, but I don't think it is widely publicised.

UK Class 1 Renewal Cost
 

My Class 1 is up for renewal shortly. The last time I paid for one it was about £80 IIRC (with nothing extra like ECG to do). That was probably over six years ago however, as until recently they were done for free by the company I worked for.

What is a likely cost for a renewal? I only ask as the first place I called quoted more than twice the £80 I thought I spent last time. I know doctors don't work for free, but that struck me as a little steep. Is this the going rate now?

Take £200, you may get some change!

Jeez! I could very nearly rent a GP for an entire morning for that much! Hang on, that's given me a business idea...

Oh well, it will all be worth it one day when someone unexpectedly tells me my career is over. Yay! :}

I am not a GP but can't just leave them out to dry like this

So the GP has to pay for his building, business rates, and utilities. He then has to purchase the best part of 10000 of equipment, amortise it over 7 years, add servicing costs of 15-20% per annum. Then he needs a receptionist and nurse, and on top of salaries has to pay national insurance, mandatory pension and payroll. He has IT costs, professional, employer, buildings and legal insurance, fees to the CAA, mandatory study leave. A lot of this incurs VAT at 20% which he can't reclaim.

Sounds a bit more reasonable now

As many a BBC news presenter will tell you (if they could hear my pointless ranting at the TV), I am not someone who likes GPs being given a hard time. My tone has obviously come across differently from how I intended, so apologies for that. I just wanted a reality check, given that the change in price from the last time I paid a renewal seems quite large. It's work that only a few people do and if the market dictates a certain rate then fine - I understand that.

I hadn't realised being an AME incurred so many extra costs though.

If it has only been 6 years, and it was £80 then, it would mean that the prices have increased by 12% per year, which is high. I don't think inflation in the rest of the economy has been any where hear 12%.

So, either it wasn't £80 6 years ago, or the price hike is exorbitant, or (more likely) the tests and processes required have changed and the doctor is now required to expend more for the exam than before.

If the doctors purely an AME he doesn't need much to ply his trade. I think the current fees are extortion.
Whats needed, a room, bed, chair, wall chart, height, weight scale, and ecg machine and few bits and bobs.
Money for old rope.

Can't now see the point of annual medicals.
I had one in April and in August had a heart attack.
No indication that was going to happen.

don't let that out Bob, or we'll have to take medicals every month

DRS, I can only assume I am wrong about the past cost, or that I was given some sort of young person discount that I was oblivious to.

Big End Bob

The AME doesnt determine that you have to have a medical. The CAA does. The AME merely facilitates it so you can ply your trade

Just as you cant just get in a plane and fly fare paying passengers, so a doctor cant just see patients in his bedroom. There are massive requirements including diasabled access, fire assessment etc etc. The rooms have to be inspected by the regulator CQC at massive cost a bit like an AOC.

I agree prices were much lower, but health inflation has been over 10% per annum for years. Many of these requirements were foisted on us by nice Mr Blair. Another cute one was effectively banning us sterilising instruments in small autoclaves so we had to use a third party....

I have no axe to grind on this matter, but every industry thinks they are the only ones being :\d by regulations / taxation / governments

Certainly in the UK, some AME's operate from their homes, unless that practise has been banned in recent years.

My AME is in a small room attached to the local flight school. He (and I) have no relation to the school, except its a useful room, which is set up well for the tests. His views on the CAA regulations re AME's are v amusing (language that would make a sailor blush!), and I feel he has a point. Once a year checks, heart attack next month, must be the AME's fault!
Oh well, mine is tomorrow, so we shall see.
P.s, not much change from £220 for class 1.


Boiling them? Seems simple and it works, therefore we must ban it!!!!

Time will tell how helpful AME will be having spent close £2500 over the years.

Just had my class 1 renewal, it was £192 including vat. This also included an audio gram. My AME is not a GP, btw.

It's interesting to see the differences in the cost. I pay £140 for mine, which is done in the AME's own home.