Getting Ready for RevalidationGet your bearings All licensed doctors will have received formal confirmation from the GMC of their revalidation dates by now. Doctors who have not yet advised the GMC of their designated body will need a GMC Account before they can start revalidation and can arrange this on-line at GMC Connect. The GMC also have a helpful set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The National Commissioning Board may be able to act for some doctors otherwise unconnected in England. Doctors who are currently without designated body will not be scheduled for revalidation until April 2014 onwards and may wish to use the supplementary online tool devised by the GMC to help them understand their options. Doctors who anticipate problems, e.g. returning after a career break or period overseas are advised to discuss whether their revalidation date can be delayed with their RO. Doctors working overseas and also those who have an extended career break (which might include working in a non-clinical capacity for a time) may wish to check online guidance from the GMC with respect to relinquishing and restoring a licence. Relinquishing and restoring a licence are both applications that a doctor must make to the GMC. Overseas regulators looking for clarification on the difference between registration and holding a licence to practice may wish to explore the FAQs for overseas regulators. The new regulations allow the GMC to accept recommendations made by suitable persons on behalf of doctors who do not have a responsible officer. The GMC has published information about the role of suitable persons. If Fellows or Members are unclear please refer to the GMC guidance. Revalidation Recommendations ROs will make a recommendation based on the results of at least one revalidation related appraisal and local clinical governance information. Recommendations can take three forms:
New guidance for ROs making revalidation recommendations has been published by the GMC and provides clear information on how the processes should be delivered locally. Supporting Information for Appraisal The delivery of revalidation is devolved to the different jurisdictions albeit that the GMC principles and standards apply. Consequently there is variation in the approach to appraisal and the tools available to manage it.
Clinical governance information should be available from employers who also have a responsibility to support the capture of colleague and patient feedback through a tested and validated tool. There is no mandatory instrument and Trust and Health Boards have the discretion to select their own tools providing they comply with GMC standards. Some Trusts and Health Boards will have preferred instruments and local appraisal procedures should make this clear. Further information on the support tools available is provided below. A guide to advise those who sit on boards how they can best check that their organisations have robust systems of appraisal and clinical governance in place to support revalidation and provide safe care to patients was developed by the GMC with systems regulators from across the UK. The handbook Effective governance to support medical revalidation reflects a shared view that ‘systems supporting medical revalidation make an essential contribution to the improvement of quality and safety for patients.’ Feedback Tools Revalidation requires every doctor to participate in systematic colleague and patient (or patient equivalent) feedback at least once in every 5 year revalidation cycle. The GMC has set standards for feedback instruments but has not approved any specific instruments leaving the choice to local Responsible Officers. Some employers will be asking their doctors to use specific tools and the College recommends you check locally before deciding which tool to use. RCPE, jointly with the other Colleges of Physicians has developed and validated colleague and patient feedback questionnaires which are available to download.
The GMC has published details of its own colleague and patient feedback instruments that have been developed and tested by Peninsular Medical School. Personal clinical audit tool (p-CAT) Available for free from their website, the RCP developed the p-CAT in partnership with the Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). The tool is being used by a number of doctors across different specialties. The p-CAT is designed to facilitate good quality clinical audit, providing a systematic approach and guiding the user through a reflective template to consider their role in and learning from the improvement activity, which is important for revalidation. The p-CAT guides the user through the audit, provides a place to record the action plan and the completion of the audit cycle through re-auditing, provides a place to record reflection as a result of the audit and generates a report which can be used as supporting information. The tool is currently undergoing further development in light of positive feedback from current users, and the revised site will be even more streamlined and simple to use. The RCP is working with audit leads in the specialist societies to populate the p-CAT with templates and sample audits to provide users with a suite of information on which to base their own audit records. Revalidation for Trainees The GMC has issued guidance for trainees preparing for revalidation. Enquiries to the College The College hopes that the information on revalidation within these webpages will answer most questions from Fellows and Members but has established a virtual helpdesk at revalidation@rcpe.ac.uk.
|
 |
 |