Profession joins forces on revalidation

Wednesday, July 23 2008

Good Medical Practice for General Practitioners – the central document underpinning the process of revalidation – will be launched jointly by the RCGP and the General Practitioners Committee with endorsement from the General Medical Council on Wednesday 23 July.

Mapped to the GMC's Good Medical Practice, the document has been updated to set out the standards expected in revalidation – and to help support GPs through the process.

Good Medical Practice for General Practitioners was first made specific to GPs in 2002. Its aim is to provide important guidance to general practitioners on the expectations of their peers and the public as to their standards of care and behaviour.

Key changes in the 2008 version include the replacement of the term 'Excellent GP' with 'Exemplary GP'; a new section on appraisals; and modifications to reflect the changes in general practice such as out-of-hours arrangements and the upsurge in web/e-mail communication.

It follows the structure and text of the GMC's Good Medical Practice, with each section providing the context for general practice, followed by some points that describe an 'exemplary GP' and an 'unacceptable GP'.

The 'exemplary GP' statements will guide the formative discussions in GP annual appraisals while the descriptors of an 'unacceptable GP' and the requirements for revalidation will inform an appraiser's judgments. These are not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative.

The purpose of revalidation (recertification and relicensure) is to ensure that licensed doctors are up to date and fit to practise. Although the focus of this document is on the standards for established GPs, it has to be read in the wider contexts of the RCGP GP Training Curriculum – which sets out the competences and knowledge for becoming a GP – and Being a General Practitioner, which describes how those competences can be mastered.

Over time, it is envisaged that the statements in this document will be linked to electronic recording systems - such as the RCGP ePortfolio revised for revalidation purposes - which will be used by GPs to build up folders of evidence for their continuing professional development, appraisals and revalidation.

RCGP Chairman Professor Steve Field said, "Revalidation will be a major challenge for the profession over the next few years and it is something to which we must all commit as it will improve and demonstrate the quality of care we provide to our patients.

"GPs can have confidence in Good Medical Practice for General Practitioners in that it is jointly owned by the profession and endorsed by the General Medical Council. We hope that it will be useful now and over the coming years and look forward to working with all GPs to guarantee that our patients can have the utmost confidence and trust in general practice and GPs."

GPC Deputy Chairman, Dr Richard Vautrey said, "We have been glad to work with the RCGP again in updating this guidance and hope the profession finds it both useful and timely. We believe it will support GPs as they prepare for revalidation in the future, and as such is key to maintaining and improving patient trust in the professionalism of GPs and the quality of care they provide."

In his introduction to the publication, Sir Graeme Catto, Chairman of the General Medical Council, said, "As we enter a world in which we can be confident that all doctors, including general practitioners, are up to date and fit to practise, we need to base our statements of good practice on realistic and achievable standards.

"Appraisal and, in time, revalidation need transparent and clear standards of practice. For general practitioners, this elaboration of Good Medical Practice is an important step towards this goal."

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.