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Getting ready for the forthcoming revalidation
Revalidation will give us the opportunity to confirm that we are up to date and fit to practise and allow us to reflect on and improve the care we deliver. Furthermore, it will allow us to demonstrate that the public’s confidence in us is well placed.
Over the following 5 years all doctors will need to be revalidated.
Annual appraisal, colleague and patient questionnaires and specialist continuing professional development will underpin medical revalidation.
Many doctors also take non-clinical work alongside their clinical activities. This will also be included in Revalidation.
The RCOG’s role
- The RCOG standards are based on the GMC Good Medical Practice
- The RCOG is producing a guidance for appraisal
- The RCOG has set performance indicators, with input from its specialist societies
- Advice on clinical audits to assess practice against national standards
- The RCOG has reviewed the CPD Programme (including mandatory element of knowledge assessment)
- The RCOG is supporting educational CPD activities (for example, meetings suitable for revalidation and enhancement of the CPD journal The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist for revalidation purposes)
- The RCOG will confirm to the doctor that they have met the requirements of the CPD Programme
- The RCOG has developed an ePortfolio allowing doctors to keep their CPD record; this will be upgraded to make it suitable for revalidation.
The revised RCOG CPD programme
The Working Party on Recertification in Obstetrics and Gynaecology revised the CPD Programme to make it fit for purpose and to align it with the evolving nature of health service provision and health professionals regulation.
The requirements of the programme need to ensure that clinicians stay up to date in the current areas of practice and develop in the areas they wish to progress.
Participation in knowledge-based assessment, undertaken mainly through The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, has been introduced as a mandatory activity for the purpose of revalidation.
The College has provided a list of mandatory educational meetings for generalists and subspecialists suitable for revalidation.
Participants’ CPD activities should be linked to their job plan.
Participants must accrue at least 50 CPD credits each year. In order to ensure that a balance is retained in the CPD programme, a maximum of 25 credits can be claimed per type of activity.
Strengthening Medical Appraisals
The professional standards under which all doctors practise are laid out by the General Medical Council.
Specialists and GPs will also be required to demonstrate that they practise in accordance with the specialist standards of the relevant College or Faculty.
The specialty standards were required to be in line with the generic standards and criteria outlined in the GMC’s Framework for Appraisal and Assessment derived from Good Medical Practice. Their purpose is to:
- Help doctors understand and prepare for their appraisal and revalidation
- Provide guidance for appraisers to discuss and consider the specialist practice of appraisees
- Assist the local Responsible Officer make decisions regarding the recommendation to the GMC for the revalidation of an individual doctor.
Strengthened Medical Appraisal
- builds on the success of existing appraisal for doctors
- will aim to identify doctors who are struggling to provide the supporting information that is needed to demonstrate achievement of generic and specialist standards
- ensure that the information used in appraisal is of a certain standard
- will need highly trained appraisers, effective systems for gathering and recording supporting information, and leadership and support from organisations.
What evidence will you be expected to submit?
The RCOG has produced a reference guide for appraisers/appraisees on the lines of the GMC’s Framework for Appraisal and Assessment. This can be found in Appendix 3 of Recertification in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Further guidance is currently being formulated. An appraisal/revalidation checklist is provided below.
The timescale for revalidation
It is anticipated that revalidation will be phased in from 2012.
The introduction of licences took place in 2009 and around 200,000 doctors have chosen to have a licence with around 13,500 choosing to remain on the register without a licence.
The pathfinder pilots will report in 2011 and the sites will test the component parts of revalidation.
Who will pay for revalidation?
- While a doctor’s preparation for appraisal and keeping up to date will continue to be his or her responsibility, discussion with the main stake-holders, including the Department of Health, the GMC, the Academy of the Royal Colleges, and the BMA will continue.
- The recently published document by the Academy of the Royal Colleges states that a minimum of 1.5 SPA will be required for this purpose.
Appraisal and Revalidation Checklist
General
- GMC Registration Number
- Evidence of a License to Practise
- Medical Qualifications
- Description of Practice
- Title
- Role
- Job Summary including r-sponsibilities and activities throughout the 5 years since last revalidation
- Job Plan for each year
- Description of voluntary roles undertaken in capacity as doctor
- Appraisal for each year
- Description of Indemnity Personal Development Plan (PDP) for each year
- Statement of Concerns and their resolution
- Statement of Probity including interests and gifts
- Statement of Health to confirm ability to undertake practice as described
- Registration with a GP
Peer Feedback
- Colleague Questionnaires
Patient Feedback
- Patient Surveys
Audit
- Audit of clinical practice
Practice
- Compliance with Standards and Legislation
- Procedural Data
- Incidents and Adverse Events -including contribution to NPSA and confidential enquiries
- Complaints and Compliments
Education, Training and Development
- CPD
- Formal Training
Governance
- Meetings—morbidity and mortality meetings and MDT
- Documentation of Compliance with relevant Local Clinical Governance Policies and Protocols