From 16 November 2009 all doctors who wish to practise medicine in the UK require a General Medical Council (GMC) Licence to Practise. This is the first practical step in introducing a system for regularly checking and assuring every doctor’s continued fitness to practise, known as revalidation.
Identifying and affirming that all doctors are keeping their knowledge up to date and providing safe patient care is intended to strengthen professional regulation and enhance service quality. This will be done through doctors regularly demonstrating that they are practising in accordance with agreed standards. The first doctors are expected to be revalidated under these processes from 2011.
Better, safer doctors: implementing medical revalidation
NHS Employers' briefing, Better, safer doctors: implementing medical revalidation explains from an employer's viewpoint the key elements of the process of revalidation, including the introduction of the Licence to Practise and relicensing and recertification. It also sets out the various roles and responsibilities, including the role of the Responsible Officer, and discusses the areas that remain to be resolved as revalidation gets underway.
FAQs
As the revalidation timeline is firmed up and as the various roles and responsibilities are finalised, NHS Employers plans to develop a set of FAQs to update the briefing and again targeted on employing organisations.
Many of the questions currently being asked by doctors and team leaders are covered by the GMC's Revalidation FAQs, first introduced in June 2009, in addition to their earlier FAQs on the Licence to Practise.
Licensing - Employers resource pack
The GMC produced a ‘resource pack’ to help NHS employers prepare for the introduction of the licence to practise on 16 November 2009. The resource pack contained information about the new legal requirements for doctors, and the changes to the online Register (the List of Registered Medical Practitioners) and the range of certificates provided by the GMC to doctors and their employers.
Figures from the GMC show 209,000 doctors (around 95% of the register) confirmed what they wanted their GMC status to be from 16 November onwards. Around 95% of these doctors said they wish to be registered with a licence while 5% chose to be registered without a licence.
For more information about licensing and revalidation, please visit the General Medical Council website.
Appraiser training - advice from the Revalidation Support Team
The revalidation process recognises the need to ensure that individuals performing the roles of appraiser are consistently educated and developed to a common agreed set of competencies. The Revalidation Support Team (RST) has produced a new set of guidance for NHS employing organisations describing work being undertaken to develop appraiser competencies and improved appraisal processes as part of the medical revalidation cycle. One key message from RST is to avoid premature activity locally to buy in so-called "revalidation-ready" training before a fit-for-purpose NHS training module has been tested and agreed.
Next steps - local action
Pending the statutory introduction of the role of Responsible Officer expected in October 2010, there are a number of local activities which can be initiated to strengthen appraisal, review governance arrangements, and identify evidence-gathering requirements. These are further outlined on our RO webpage. Additional guidance on strengthening appraisal processes is available from the NHS Revalidation Support Team.
Additional preparatory information can be found in the GMC's March/April 2010 Revalidation Update newsletter designed mainly for individual doctors, but also containing advice for employers and some interesting case studies.
Next steps - national
NHS Employers has seats on the UK Revalidation Programme Board and the Professional Standards Delivery Board and will continue to work closely with all organisations responsible for the introduction of medical revalidation to make sure that they take into account employers’ views, requirements and responsibilities.
Detailed consultation led by the GMC has begun on "The way ahead", which covers requirements for appaisal, multi-source feedback, and revalidation linked to specialty standards. NHS Employers plans to feed into those discussions via an on-line members' survey. See our consultation web page.
Have your say
NHS Employers welcomes views on any aspect of the revalidation process and will reflect these in ongoing discussions on implementation. Please send any queries or comments to medicalworkforce@nhsemployers.org.