GP Appraisal and Revalidation

The biggest challenge faced centrally is in distributing appraisals across the whole appraisal year. The first two quarters of the year tend to be light while Appraisers have a heavy workload in the final two quarters. Therefore, in order to try and spread workload further across the coming year the Central Board of Management of GP Appraisal have agreed to implement the following:

12-13 Appraisal Year

• 9 January 2012 - Opening Date for Registration and Declaration Forms
• 30 June 2012 - Deadline for Appraisees who wish to state their preference of: Appraiser, month, date and venue for your appraisal
• After 30 June 2012 - Appraisees who submit Registration and Declaration forms after this date will be allocated
  • An Appraiser, based on regional availability (Please note, you may be required to travel to your appraiser, anywhere in the region)
  • A particular quarter for your appraisal
• 28 February 2013 - Closing date for Registration and Declaration Forms.  Please note forms received after this date will not be accepted.

13-14 Appraisal Year

• 27 January 2013 - Opening Date for Registration and Declaration Forms
• 30 June 2013 - Deadline for Appraisees who wish to state their preference of: Appraiser, month, date and venue for your appraisal
• After 30 June 2013 - Appraisees who submit Registration and Declaration forms after this date will be allocated
  • An Appraiser, based on regional availability (Please note, you may be required to travel to your appraiser, anywhere in the region)
  • A particular quarter for your appraisal
• 28 February 2014 - Closing date for Registration and Declaration Forms.  Please note forms received after this date will not be accepted.

You are advised not to arrange an appraisal with the same Appraiser for more than 3 consecutive years and that you should not book with that Appraiser again for 2 subsequent years.

If you have not undertaken an appraisal within the previous appraisal year due to extenuating circumstances, you are only required to complete one appraisal in the current appraisal year. You do not need to complete two appraisals. See FAQ for further details.

Revalidation is designed to improve the quality of patient care and has three elements:

• To confirm that licensed doctors practise in accordance with the GMC’s generic standards (relicensure)
• For doctors on the Specialist Register and GP Register, to confirm that they meet the standards appropriate for their specialty (Recertification)
• To identify for further investigation, and remediation, poor practice where local systems are not robust enough to do this or do not exist

Northern Ireland will be following the same timelines as the rest of the UK with Revalidation expected to begin in December 2012.

The following Revalidation Implementation Guidelines have been agreed with the DHSSPS.

The GMC have given the following step by step guide to the revalidation process:

• Licensed doctors will be required to link to a Responsible Officer (RO).
• Licensed doctors will need to maintain a portfoloio of Supporting Information drawn from their practice which demonstrates how they are continuing to meet the principles and values set out in Good Medical Practice Framework for appraisal and revalidation.
• Licensed doctors will be expected to participate in a process of annual appraisal based on their portfolio of supporting information.
• The responsible Officer will make a Recommendation to the GMC about a doctor’s fitness to practise, normally every five years. The recommendation will be based on the outcome of a licensed doctor’s annual appraisals over the course of five years, combined with information drawn from the clinical governance system of the organisation in which the licensed doctor works.
• The GMC’s decision to revalidate a licensed doctor will be informed by the Responsible Officers recommendation.
• Guidelines are available from the GMC regarding how doctors can meet requirements for revalidation in the first cycle.