The General Medical Council and the future of revalidation: GMC prepares to deliver notable improvements

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1446-b

BMJ 2005;330:1446-1447 (18 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7505.1446-b

Letter

The General Medical Council and the future of revalidation

GMC prepares to deliver notable improvements

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

EDITOR—Esmail is looking at things from the wrong endof the telescope when claiming that the General Medical Councilhas failed to grasp the issue of scrutinising doctors' performance.¹Surely the main lesson that has emerged from the various recentinquiries is that employers of doctors (including primary caretrusts) need to ensure that they have in place local systemsthat can deal quickly, effectively, and fairly with poor ordangerous practice.

That approach has—rightly—underpinned the government'squality agenda since 1997, and it was reaffirmed by Lord Warnerat the conference of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellencein March this year, when he said that the responsibilities ofemployers must be properly exploited before we load more onto regulators. We need proper clarity on the respective rolesof each. What is needed is a proper understanding of the roleof clinical governance in improving the quality . . . [Full text of this article]

Amanda Watson, director of licensing and revalidation

General Medical Council, London NW1 3JN jwren@gmc-uk.org