GP magazine distils the essentials from guidance on revalidation from the RCGP, GMC and other organisations.
Who will be revalidated and when?
If you hold a licence to practise, you will need to be revalidated.
GPs who are no longer in active clinical general practice, but who are active as doctors, will be revalidated for what they do.
GPs will be revalidated once every five years. All doctors will receive notice of the date they are due to be revalidated by April 2013.
20% of doctors will be revalidated in 2013, 40% in 2014 and 40% in 2015.
What do I need to do?
Find out who your responsible officer (RO) is – this person will recommend doctors in your area for revalidation. If you are on a performers list, you should be told who this is. If not, contact the GMC.
Ensure your annual appraisal covers all of your medical practice, and that at least one appraisal before your revalidation date is based on the GMC’s guide Good Medical Practice.
Use an electronic CPD folder to gather evidence for appraisal and revalidation, for example, the CPD organiser at GPonline.com.
Start collecting supporting information.
What information do I need?
Demonstrate that you have collected and reflected on CPD, quality improvement activity, significant events, feedback from colleagues and patients, and a review of complaints and compliments.
The RCGP recommends fifty CPD credits a year – a total of 250 in a five-year cycle. One hour’s CPD is worth one credit, but its value is doubled if you can show that it changed your patient care.
Two significant event audits for the 12-month period before your last appraisal prior to your revalidation date.
At least one full-cycle clinical audit within the five-year cycle.
One multisource feedback questionnaire sent to colleagues and one distributed to patients within the five-year cycle.
What is multisource feedback?
Often called 360-degree appraisal, it is feedback gathered from your colleagues and patients.
You will need feedback from about 15 colleagues and 35 patients.
Colleagues include other GPs, nurses, receptionists and other non-clinical colleagues, including pharmacists.
Questionnaires can be obtained free from the GMC, or from companies that charge to send out and collate questionnaires.
What if I’m a non-standard GP?
Don’t work in isolation. Join a sessional GP group or locum chambers.
If you’re a locum, ensure that your practice managers give you a unique username and password for IT systems so that colleagues can identify your work.
Take a name badge or ID card to practices to ensure that patients can identify you and can provide feedback.
If a practice does not ask you back, find out why and learn from the feedback.
What if I’m a non-standard GP?
Don’t work in isolation. Join a sessional GP group or locum chambers.
If you’re a locum, ensure that your practice managers give you a unique username and password for IT systems so that colleagues can identify your work.
Take a name badge or ID card to practices to ensure that patients can identify you and can provide feedback.
If a practice does not ask you back, find out why and learn from the feedback.
What if I fail?
Technically, it is impossible to fail, but if serious concerns are raised during revalidation or appraisals, a GP’s revalidation will be put on hold and concerns will be processed through the usual fitness-to-practise channels.
ROs can request that a GP’s recommendation is deferred. This may happen if the doctor has taken a break from their practice (for example, maternity or sick leave).
Remediation is the process of addressing performance concerns not serious enough to warrant a fitness-to-practise case.
Criteria to determine who will receive DH funding for remediation are yet to be determined.
