The GMC’s chief executive Niall Dickson (pictured) said the council is looking at the appraisal process to ensure that ‘doctors don’t feel like they have to spend weeks preparing for it’.

He said the GMC will look at how much supporting information will be needed for each speciality. But he said the GMC would ensure that it only asks for ‘appropriate information’.

‘We certainly don’t want to ask for supporting information that is impossible for some to get,’ he said.

Mr Dickson said the changes to revalidation have come about in reaction to 940 consultation responses. He said while respondents showed a ‘broad support for the principle of revalidation’, doctors had ‘varying degrees of support’ about how revalidation will be implemented.

GMC chairman Professor Peter Rubin said the GMC want the processes leading up to the annual appraisal to be ‘pragmatic and effective at the frontline’.

He said if doctors keep their eportfolio up-to-date, to include details of continuing medical education, meetings attended and completed online modules, then this is ‘effectively enough’ to assure the public that doctors are up-to-date and fit to practice.

Professor Rubin said: ‘Appraisal should not be some huge box-ticking exercise.

‘If you do that your preparation for your appraisal is a matter of organising and downloading your eportfolio, which is not time consuming. We are talking about an hour or two. And then we are talking about an hour or two for the actual appraisal itself, a year.’

Mr Dickson said the GMC will now look at the responses in detail, with the aim of producing a report of the changes in the autumn.

• Editors' Blog: Health White Paper means the death of revalidation

• View our Revalidation online resource