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The way in which doctors are regulated and relicensed is changing. From the end of 2012 a licensed medical practitioner will have to demonstrate to the GMC, normally every five years, that they are up to date and fit to practice. According to the GMC:
‘The purpose of revalidation is to assure patients and the public, employers and other healthcare professionals that licensed doctors are up to date and fit to practice.’
The aim is to support doctors in their professional development, helping to improve quality, patient safety and public confidence in the profession.
Each licensed doctor will link to the GMC through a senior licensed doctor in their organisation called the Responsible Officer.
Doctors are expected to maintain portfolios of supporting information which are reviewed at annual appraisals. The Responsible Officer will use this evidence to make a recommendation to the GMC about a doctor’s fitness to practice and then the GMC will decide whether a doctor’s license should continue for another 5 years (be revalidated).
There are 6 types of supporting information that doctors will be expected to provide in their portfolios and discuss in their annual appraisals at least once in each five year cycle:
1. Continuing Professional Development
2. Quality Improvement Activity
3. Significant Events
4. Feedback from Colleagues
5. Feedback from Patients (where applicable)
6. Review of Complaints and Compliments
For trainees the revalidation process begins on full registration (F2 for UK trainees) and then they are revalidated at CCT and for longer training programmes after 5 years in addition to at CCT.
Their link or prescribed connection is to the Deanery and their Responsible Officer is the Postgraduate Dean, which for Wessex trainees is Dr Simon Plint.
Trainees already maintain much of the supporting information required for revalidation in an ARCP portfolio. For example, quality improvement activity is evidenced by participation in audit and feedback from colleagues through multi-source feedback requirements in training.
Although information and reflections on significant events, complaints and compliments may be included in a trainees portfolio, it is not currently a requirement across all specialties. However to comply with revalidation regulations all trainees will need to start collecting and including this information in their portfolios.
To investigate the possibility of enhancing the current ARCP process to include information about outstanding complaints, significant events or clinical governance issues, Wessex Deanery participated in the English Doctors in Training Revalidation Pilot which involved ARCPs from October to December 2011. The feedback from this has now been analysed and the final report submitted to the Revalidation Support Team (RST) in February 2012.
For the Responsible Officer to make a revalidation recommendation they need to take into account the complete scope of doctor’s practice. Therefore for revalidation, trainees will be required to declare any extra work they may do outside of training in their capacity as a doctor, either as a locum, in private practice or in a voluntary role.
The specifics of the revalidation process for trainees are still being discussed, but once they have been finalised then more information will be shared.
Answers to some Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.
If you would like any more information then please contact the Revalidation Assistant Programme Manager: Alethea Peters on alethea.peters@wessexdeanery.nhs.uk.
The Associate Dean for Revalidation is Mr Mark Goodwin.
For more information about revalidation, please see the following links:
GMC website: http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/12383.asp
RST website: http://www.revalidationsupport.nhs.uk/index.php
BMA website: http://www.bma.org.uk/employmentandcontracts/doctors_performance/professional_regulation/