Revalidation 'will boost patient trust in doctors'
By Prisca Middlemiss, 29 April 2010
The GMC is making the case for revalidation by publishing figures showing that 71 per cent of patients say they would be more trusting of their doctor.
The new figures come as LMCs submit motions for their annual conference in June suggesting revalidation is burdensome, costly and unwanted by GPs.
The GMC commissioned pollsters Opinion Matters to ask 2,300 patients how confident they felt in the last doctor they saw. They then asked if knowing the doctor was regularly appraised would increase patients' trust.
Some 14 per cent said they were not confident in the last doctor they saw. A total of 71 per cent agreed that revalidation would boost their confidence.
Even among the patients who were ‘quite' or ‘very confident' in their doctor, two thirds said revalidation would make them more trusting.
GMC chief executive Niall Dickson said: ‘We know that patients... justifiably trust their doctors. But many also think that every doctor is already subjected to regular checks, and this is not the case.'
Just a few out of around 300 responses to the GMC's ongoing consultation on revalidation have come from patient groups.
Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow LMC, in west London, is calling on the national conference of LMCs to show its concern that revalidation is too burdensome, underfunded, not backed by GPs and will make many ‘excellent and experienced' GPs retire early.
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