RCP membership – FAQs

With a 500-year history and over 40,000 members and fellows in the UK and internationally, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is uniquely placed to support and represent you throughout your medical career.

The RCP plays a pivotal role in raising standards of healthcare and shaping public health, and as part of our membership community you’ll have opportunities to get involved and influence our work through our committees and networks.

You’ll also benefit from a wide range of resources to help you excel at every career stage, including:

• free access to our online video archive and over 3,000 ejournals and ebooks
• free access to our online CPD diary
• exclusive discounts on RCP conferences and events.

The MRCP(UK) exam is also known as the membership exam. It is an exam in general medicine that is coordinated and run by the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians (Edinburgh, Glasgow and London). For more information about the MRCP(UK) exam please visit the MRCP(UK) website.

RCP collegiate membership is membership by subscription. It is not mandatory and it is not a qualification, but offers many membership benefits that can support your professional life including an additional post-nominal MRCP (London).

If you are a UK taxpayer, save 22–40% of the cost of your membership subscription.

If you are doing this year's tax return, you can download your receipts from your MyRCP account. Alternatively, you can email membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk for previous years' receipts.

There are two ways that a trainee can pay training fees:

• a one-off lump sum paid directly to JRCPTB
• by spreading the cost of your training fees in annual instalments and receiving RCP membership benefits by combining your annual training fee with RCP membership.

It is essential that you enrol with JRCPTB first before selecting your payment option or applying for membership at one of the three RCP colleges.

You can pay online with a MyRCP account. We accept Visa, Mastercard and Switch. Unfortunately we do not accept American Express.

Foundation doctor members are only able to pay for their membership by direct debit. No administration fee applies.

What happens if I have arrears to pay and I want to start a quarterly direct debit?

Any arrears from previous membership years will be collected in full in the first quarterly payment along with the first quarterly instalment. From then on, your subscription will be divided into quarters according to how many quarterly membership payments you need to pay.

How will my direct debit appear on my bank statement?

It will appear as ’Royal College of Physicians’.

Do I need a UK bank account to set up a direct debit?

Yes – we only accept direct debits from UK bank accounts.

I am moving abroad – what will happen to my direct debit?

As long as you still have an active UK bank account you can continue to pay by quarterly or annual direct debit irrespective of where you are located.

How do I switch back to annual direct debit payments?

You can email membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk and we will make this change for you. You would be required to pay the balance outstanding for the remainder of your subscriptions year.

Is there a maternity leave concession?

We offer a 50% rate to members and fellows on maternity leave.

Please contact the membership team for more information about concessions, or to register your subscription concession. All matters are dealt with confidentially.

Members and fellows can log in to their MyRCP account to access exclusive content. If you are experiencing a problem, please consider these questions:

Have you forgotten your password?

You can reset it, and an email will be sent to your primary email address as confirmation. If you do not receive one within 10 minutes, either in your inbox or junk/spam folder, please email membershipqueries@rcplondon.ac.uk and they will reset it for you.

Are you registered for the MyRCP members area?

You can register by entering your name, RCP code, email address and a new login password.

Are your payments up to date?

Existing members and fellows that are 6 or more months in arrears must settle their membership's outstanding balance to continue to access the members only areas of the website (plus CPD access and delivery of the Clinical Medicine journal).

If you are an SAS doctor with a pay scale above £71,654.00 then, as an associate member, you should be placed on the associate SAS threshold 2 membership category. Otherwise you should be placed on the associate SAS threshold 1 membership category.

Log in to the MyRCP members area to update your contact details.

For amendments to your name, qualifications and date of birth, please send the change request along with supporting evidence (a copy of the marriage certificate, passport, diploma, etc) to the membership team: membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk.

Changes to your mailing preferences can be updated when you receive an email from the RCP. Alternatively, you can contact the membership team.

If you are fully retired from all remunerative medical practice (no working sessions – NHS work, private practice, teaching or research) you can declare your retirement online. Alternatively, you can email membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk. Please note that retired individuals are expected to pay the existing subscription in the year of their retirement.

From 1 January 2022 we are introducing an £80 annual fee for both retired members and fellows to remain active subscribers to the RCP. This new fee will include your online access to Clinical Medicine, Future Healthcare Journal and Commentary magazine (three print copies of Commentary will still be posted to you unless you have opted out of receiving print) as well as membership of the Senior Physicians’ Society. The fee applies internationally and in the UK. We have introduced this fee, following discussion with the Senior Physicians’ Society, to ensure equity between all members of the college and so that all members who remain part of our active physician community are contributing financially to some extent.

If you are a fellow and you are retiring from the NHS but continuing reduced working sessions, you may be eligible for a concession on your current subscription. There are various concessions available for fellows working seven or fewer programmed activities (PAs, formerly known as Notional Half Days) per week. For more information please contact the membership team.

Resignation from the GMC will not affect your membership subscription to the RCP. Your status will remain as a member/fellow in good standing – similar to our overseas members and fellows who are not linked to the GMC.

Yes – Retired members and fellows are automatically enrolled to the Senior Physicians Society who hold lively and interesting events based on different themes three times a year. Those over the age of 80 can decide whether to continue to subscribe to their benefits or simply keep their FRCP post-nominal.

Fellows and members are expected to act in accordance with the bye-laws and regulations and, in a wider sense, have a duty not to compromise the name of the RCP and to conduct themselves in a way that does not compromise their professional standing or registration or other authority to practise medicine. Where an individual’s fellowship or membership requires payment of a subscription, this must be up to date and not in arrears.

Should you be aware of any circumstances which you feel may contradict this and which might cause difficulty for you or the RCP subsequently (such as being the subject of a GMC inquiry), you are invited to declare them to the registrar. This will be treated in confidence and any such details will be considered on their own merits.

The RCP has an almost complete collection of obituaries of its past fellows, known as Lives of the fellows.

Please contact the membership team (membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk) for a replacement fellowship diploma or a fellowship verification letter.

All MRCP(UK) verification and duplicate MRCP(UK) diploma requests should be sent to the examinations department: MRCPverification@rcplondon.ac.uk.

All other diploma, licentiate and fellowship verification requests, and duplicate fellowship diploma requests, should be directed to the membership team.

Is there a cost for this service?

Verification letters will be sent to existing members and fellows at no charge. Medical staffing and recruitment agencies will need to pay an administration fee of £12 by credit or debit card.

Replacement MRCP(UK) and fellowship diplomas will incur a fee. These details will be sent to you following your initial enquiry.

Before you make a decision, download the fellowship concessions form and consider these points:

Are you eligible for a lower subscription rate?

If you are also a fellow of a non-mainstream specialty college or faculty, or working seven or fewer PAs a week, you may be eligible for a concession on your subscription.

Are you experiencing personal financial difficulties?

Please email the membership team and we will ensure your correspondence is forwarded to the treasurer.

If you still wish to cancel your fellowship, your record will be updated only when we have received written confirmation of your decision. If you wish to reinstate your fellowship within 3 years, you will need to apply to the membership team and pay any outstanding fellowship arrears at the time of resigning. If you held MRCP(UK) you will revert to this post-nominal.

Yes, please contact the membership team on membershipqueries@rcp.ac.uk to receive your unique verification code to sign-up for TOTUM discount.

TOTUM pro card is available to all members and fellows.