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Government to review doctors' revalidation system

London Zosia Kmietowicz

The General Medical Council has postponed the introduction of its new system for assessing doctors’ fitness to practise after the government asked to review the scheme because of criticisms of it (on p 10) in the fifth report of the Shipman inquiry.

The council’s new scheme of revalidation will be shelved until the review is complete, which will not be until after the scheme was due to be launched in April 2005. The review, which is being led by Professor Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, will audit the proposed arrangements in detail. A statement from the Department of Health suggests that the proposed appraisal system may need to be strengthened to protect both patients and doctors.

The health minister Lord Warner said: "It would be unfair to doctors and confusing for patients to start the new revalidation scheme on one basis and then to make changes . . . [Full text of this article]

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