The General Medical Council and the future of revalidation: GMC member responds

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1446

BMJ 2005;330:1446 (18 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1446

Letter

The General Medical Council and the future of revalidation

GMC member responds

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Esmail and Kmietowicz give an inaccurate accountof the General Medical Council's policy development on revalidation,ignoring an iterative process with interested parties since1998 in an attempt to introduce the most fundamental changeto medical regulation since its foundation in 1858.^1
2 The GMCclearly has had regard to the legitimate interests of threeprincipal groups—government and the NHS, patients andthe public, and the various tribes that make up the UK medicalprofession.

Despite suggestions to the contrary, an initial exploratorymeeting on revalidation convened by Sir Donald Irvine in June1998 was held in the context of a high profile professionalconduct case, but well before the Bristol inquiry report andabsolutely nothing to do with Rodney Ledward or, indeed, HaroldShipman. It was recognised then that some doctors were not keepingfully up to date nor were they indulging in reflective practice.Irvine correctly proposed . . . [Full text of this article]

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Brian D Keighley, general practitioner

The Clinic, Balfron, Stirlingshire G63 0TS Bkeighley@aol.com