Mentoring and appraisal may stave off calls for reaccreditation

When asked “Have we lost faith?” George Bernard Shaw replied, “Certainly not; but we have transferred it from God to the General Medical Council.”1 The UK continues to rely on self regulation among doctors, but, in the wake of increasing public concern about standards of medical practice and the profession's ability to deal with problem doctors, the GMC has moved from reactive to proactive mode. Instead of merely wagging the finger and telling doctors what they should not do, the council has made a determined attempt to forge an explicit view of how doctors should practise to the highest standards.2

This sea change in professional thinking was clearly demonstrated with the publication of …