Published 24 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a988
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a988

News

Government plans to revalidate doctors every five years

Owen Dyer

1 London

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

All doctors working in England are to face annual appraisal of their skills and performance and will have to reapply for a medical licence every five years, according to plans announced by the UK chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson.

For most doctors not in substantive training posts revalidation will involve two components—relicensing, subject to their adherence to generic standards, such as the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice guidelines, and specialist recertification, which will depend on meeting criteria to be set by the relevant medical royal colleges.

Both the GMC and the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges worked with Sir Liam to develop the proposals, which the GMC’s president, Graeme Catto, called "the biggest change to medical regulation in 150 years."

Although GPs and some specialties already have appraisal systems written into their contracts, Sir Liam’s working group argued that implementation was "patchy." Under the new plans, appraisal will be . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Recertification and Racketeering
Richard A Rosin
bmj.com, 2 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Revalidation will not identify poor practice
Michael R Jarmulowicz
bmj.com, 4 Aug 2008 [Full text]
Necessary Kick Up the Backside
Jay Ilangaratne
bmj.com, 5 Aug 2008 [Full text]
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