Revalidation is another area of work that has kept us extremely busy over the last 12-18 months. There has been a prolonged debate by the GMC/CMO/DH about the revalidation processes and the GMC has now concluded that revalidation should be a single set of processes with a clear outcome which doctors, their patients and those who employ or contract doctors’ services can understand. The previously proposed “recertification” component has been abandoned.
Last November you will have received your licence to practise from the GMC. When revalidation is introduced, probably next year, doctors who wish to keep their licence will need to demonstrate to the GMC periodically, normally every five years, that they are up-to-date and fit to practise. We are delighted to see from GMC’s consultation document they have opted for a simple process very similar to that proposed by us in our report Recertification in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
A key element of the revalidation process is the annual appraisal. The supporting information for your appraisal/revalidation portfolios will come from your day-to-day practice in order to demonstrate that you are complying with the professional standards. The information required will vary depending on the nature of the doctor’s practice, but will include material such as audit data, outcome data, as well as colleague and patient questionnaires (one each in any given five-year cycle); evidence of CPD activities. This information will need to be brought together with other relevant clinical governance information to the annual appraisal.
It should be noted that you will be revalidated in the area of your current practice, e.g. a doctor on the Specialist Register for Obstetrics and Gynaecology but currently practising as a GP will be revalidated as a GP. The GMC Specialist or GP Register entry will remain as a historical record of a doctor’s achievement but the register will also show the field in which a doctor most recently demonstrated fitness to practise through revalidation. This is a particularly welcome news for competent doctors who are not on the specialist register because the register well acknowledge their continuing competence and meeting their specialty standards. This might apply, for example, to staff grade doctors who provide specialty services in the NHS.
To facilitate revalidation the RCOG CPD Programme was revised and piloted last year. We are delighted with the feedback from the pilot as all the closed questions in the survey showed that all elements were supported by all participants. The new programme will be introduced incrementally for all participants during 2010, together with the launch of the new e-CPD Portfolio. Like myself, some senior colleagues may be a little apprehensive at first about this electronic tool for recording their activities but I am sure this will be more than compensated by the fact that we will no longer be required to send in our diaries to the College. The CPD Office will access the electronic diaries for checking, with advance notice, thus giving us the opportunity to ensure they are up-to-date.
The CPD portfolios will be essential information for appraisals/revalidation to demonstrate that the doctor has met the standards set by the relevant professional organisation. We have therefore built in a facility for you to download a pdf of your diary.
For further information on revalidation please visit the “Revalidation” section of the RCOG website and the GMC website, which includes their consultation documents.
All comments via Valeria Ferrante, Professional Standards Lead. Email: vferrante@rcog.org.uk. Tel: 020 7772 6307
Dr Tahir Mahmood
Vice President Standards