The General Medical Council has announced that it is ready to introduce a new process of regularly checking doctor’s skills.
The process will involve annual appraisals for all of the 230,000 UK doctors. Decisions will then be made over whether they merit revalidation to remain on the medical register every five years.
Surprisingly, at the moment there is no scheme in place for assessing doctors, although annual appraisals are carried out in some places. The scheme for regular checks was first proposed in the mid-90s but was delayed due to concerns over costs.
Under the new scheme, appraisals will look at particular areas which doctors need to work on including any complaints or compliments that they have received over the previous year. Patients and colleagues will also provide feedback and there will be audits of how patients get on following a visit to their doctor.
The process will then lead to an assessment every five years. Provided there are no problems, the doctor will be revalidated, meaning that they can remain on the medical register.
Dr Brian Keighley of the British Medical Association said that the new process was “about assuring patients that doctors are being kept up to date.”
Any doctors that are found to be under-performing will still need to go through the General medical Council’s fitness to practice process before they would either be disciplined or struck-off.
Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association said:
“Patients will be truly shocked to realise that this kind of basic process has not been happening. We cannot afford to compromise patient safety any longer. This is a crucial step to ensure clinical staff have the right expertise to care for patients.”
This new process will ensure that doctors are regularly reviewed and assessed. It is vital that doctors are subject to regular checks to ensure a level of responsibility and also so that patients know their concerns are dealt with properly.
Importantly, the new checks will also mean that doctors can benefit from extra support and training where necessary.
The system should help to provide reassurance to patients that doctors are well regulated and accountable for their actions.
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Danielle Young is an Associate in our Medical Negligence team.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.