To be honest, it’s a bit of a relief. Having said on the Hot Topics course that
it’ll be here next year for what seems like decades, Revalidation finally
launched in December 2012. It has struck
fear in to the heart of many doctors, but the reality is that as GPs doing
annual appraisals for years, the changes are simple and small.
Over the first 4 months the Responsible Officers (those
ultimately accountable for signing us off) and medical leaders will be
revalidated. Then from April 2013 all
other doctors will be revalidated over the next 3 years (only 20% in the first
year), after which this will be a rolling 5 year cycle.
While there has been a lot of concern over Revalidation,
this is meant to be a positive and constructive process. The focus of revalidation is the annual
appraisal. Because the GP appraisal
system is much more robust and structured than many other medical specialities
this means that for the majority of GPs revalidation will require little extra
time or effort.
We already document CPD, reflect, audit practice and review
significant events and complaints. Yes, there
is the additional requirement for feedback from patients and colleagues in the
form of anonymous questionnaires but only once every 5 years - not especially
onerous. For most it will be pleasantly
self-affirming. GPs trained in the past
6 years will be very familiar with this whole process as it has significant
parallels to the RCGP’s ePortfolio and work-based assessments.
As ever, the goal should be to maximise efficiency - something
we as GPs are very good at. To aid this
NB Medical has produced the Keep It Simple Summary Guide to Revalidation
2013.
The principal is not to make you do complicated audits or
read endless papers – you can simply use this to quickly document all the hard
work you already do and then upload it to your Revalidation portfolio.
Check it out at www.nbmedical.com/downloads and download it for free.
What do you need to be doing now? Here’s a few tips to take the stress out of
revalidation:
- Find out who is your Responsible Officer
- You have probably been contacted already
- If not, contact your Designated Body. This will be the PCO which manages your Performer’s List.
- Set up a GMC Online account
- This will allow you to see your revalidation details and date
- Do a Patient and Colleague survey now if you’ve not done one in the past few years
- This is what most GPs worry about – get it out the way for another 5 years
- Do a full audit cycle
- If you’ve done part of one, get it finished or check out the Hot Topics course booklet for ideas
- Ensure that there is a practice process for discussing significant events
- Complete the KISS Significant Event Template in the meeting and upload it for colleagues to access on the practice intranet
If you want even more information, watch this presentation
from NHS
South of England, and of course the RCGP,
BMA and GMC have their say.
So don’t fear, keep it simple and Happy Revalidation!
Neal
