Revalidation for Doctors
Since its introduction, MedXpert has been at the forefront of doctor’s revalidation. Doctors who partner with us receive the support and guidance of our expert revalidation team, who are readily available to assist them throughout the revalidation process.
Over time, MedXpert has successfully supported numerous locum doctors, exceeding a significant milestone. Our assistance includes conducting annual appraisals, granting access to a secure online toolkit, and providing free training. This training encompasses CPD accredited courses, which are facilitated by the BMA (British Medical Association).
MedXpert Revalidation Services
When doctors choose to partner with us, they automatically receive the unwavering attention and dedication of our specialized revalidation team. This team is equipped to expertly guide doctors through the entire revalidation process.
AtMedXpert, we provide comprehensive support to doctors, which includes:
- An annual appraisal is conducted by a trained appraiser.
- Access to a secure online appraisal system for convenient management of supporting documentation.
- An online multi-source feedback tool for effective distribution and collation of colleague and patient feedback.
- A dedicated revalidation support team that offers invaluable advice and guidance throughout the revalidation journey.
- Free mandatory online training and Basic Life Support (BLS) courses.
- MedXpert membership grants doctors access to a wide range of CPD-accredited courses and more.
How to start your revalidation process?
To initiate your revalidation process and learn more about the revalidation services we offer, please follow these steps:
Already registered with MedXpert?
If you are already a part of the MedXpert family, reach out to your Placement Officer. They will determine if you have completed most of your locum hours with MedXpert in the past 12 months. If confirmed, a member of our revalidation team will contact you to provide guidance on the support we can offer.
New to MedXpert?
If you are not regisMedXpert or have general questions about revalidation, please contact our team by filling out the form provided.
Preparing for Revalidation
Revalidation during the COVID-19 pandemic:
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, appraisal, revalidation, and associated activities were suspended for most doctors in the UK from March 2020. This included portfolio compilation, CPD recording, quality improvement, and formal feedback.
In October 2020, the GMC (General Medical Council) made slight changes to the appraisal and revalidation process, and from April 2021, doctors started receiving notifications from the GMC about their revalidation dates with a four-month notice.
GMC Guidance:
The GMC has provided clear guidelines on the supporting information required and the frequency for each appraisal. Your appraisal portfolio will typically need you to provide basic information about yourself and your practice.
The supporting information to include in your appraisal falls under four main headings:
- General information: Providing context about your work in all aspects.
- Keeping up to date: Maintaining and enhancing the quality of your professional work.
- Review of your practice: Evaluating the quality of your professional practice.
- Feedback on your practice: How others perceive the quality of your professional practice.
There are six types of supporting information you should provide and discuss in each five-year cycle of revalidation. These include:
- Continual professional development
- Quality improvement activity
- Significant events
- Feedback from colleagues
- Feedback from patients (where applicable)
- Review of complaints and compliments
Revalidation Tips:
Here are our top three tips to keep in mind during your revalidation process:
- Arrange appropriate support and ensure you have an appraisal date and a Responsible Officer well in advance of your revalidation date.
- Take every opportunity to gather material for your portfolio. Make reflective notes after each locum shift, considering the events, lessons learned, and how you can apply those experiences in the future. Whenever possible, obtain written feedback from colleagues.
- Stay up-to-date with your CPD. Allocate time in your schedule to attend training courses, conferences, and clinical meetings. Remember to record all CPD activities, including contributions to peer learning.
Further Information:
For more details on the supporting information you should gather, please visit the GMC Revalidation Support Team website.
Busting the Jargon: Here is a handy guide to key terms you may encounter while preparing for revalidation. If you have any uncertainties, feel free to ask us a question using the form below.
Appraisal is the vehicle through which supporting information for revalidation will be assessed. All doctors who hold a Licence to Practise are required to engage in annual appraisals. The process of preparation, collation and reflection on information, followed by a discussion with an appraiser at a formal, confidential meeting.
The appraisal meeting between the appraisee and appraiser should take place every year. An appraisal is considered to be completed when the summary of the appraisal discussion and personal development plan (PDP) have been signed off by appraiser and appraisee, within 28 days of the appraisal meeting.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a continuous learning process that complements formal undergraduate and postgraduate education and training in order to maintain and further develop competence and performance. CPD enables you to maintain and improve across all areas of your practice.
An organisation that employs or contracts with doctors and is designated in The Medical Profession (Responsible Officer) Regulations 2010. A designated body as far as locum agencies are concerned are those which are participants in the GPS (previously Buying Solutions) national framework agreement for the supply of medical locums.
Good Medical Practice sets out the principles and values on which good practice is founded; these principles together describe medical professionalism in action. The guidance is addressed to doctors, but it is also intended to let the public know what they can expect from doctors.
To practise medicine in the UK all doctors are required, by law, to be both registered and hold a licence to practise. This applies to practising full time, part time, as a locum, privately or in the NHS, or employed or self employed. Licences are issued, renewed and withdrawn by the GMC.
To practise medicine in the UK all doctors are required, by law, to be both registered and hold a licence to practise. This applies to practising full time, part time, as a locum, privately or in the NHS, or employed or self employed. Licences are issued, renewed and withdrawn by the GMC.
Peer review is the process of having a piece of work or data/information reviewed by colleagues in the same field to ensure its validity and relevance.
The personal development plan (PDP) is an agreement, between the appraisee and appraiser, on the learning and development needs of the appraisee, identified at the appraisal interview, with an outcome-based learning plan for the subsequent year.
Quality Improvement Activity - For the purposes of revalidation, you will have to demonstrate that you regularly participate in activities that review and evaluate the quality of your work.
The overall process agreed with a practitioner to redress identified aspects of under performance. Remediation is a broad concept varying from informal agreements to carry out some re-skilling, to more formal supervised programmes of remediation or rehabilitation.
The Responsible Officer will have specific responsibilities relating to the evaluation of the fitness to practise of doctors connected with that organisation. Every licensed doctor will be linked with a named Responsible Officer. One of the Responsible Officer's key roles will be to recommend to the GMC whether or not a doctor should be revalidated.
Revalidation is the process by which Doctors holding registration with a Licence to Practise will have to demonstrate to the GMC normally every 5 years that they are up to date and fit to practise and complying with the relevant professional standards.
The Revalidation Support Team (RST), part of Guys & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, is a Department of Health funded body, which exists to support the implementation of revalidation. The RST works in partnership with the Department of Health for England, the GMC and designated bodies, to deliver an effective system of revalidation for doctors in England.
A Significant Event (also known as an untoward or critical incident) is any unintended or unexpected event, which could or did lead to harm of one or more patients. This includes incidents which did not cause harm but could have done, or where the event should have been prevented.
During their annual appraisals, doctors will use Supporting Information to demonstrate that they are continuing to meet the principles and values set out in Good Medical Practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some commonly asked questions for doctors completing their revalidation and information on what steps you can take next.
Revalidation is the process by which doctors have to demonstrate to the GMC that they are up to date and complying with the relevant professional standards. Revalidation will be based on a local evaluation of doctors’ performance through annual appraisal. The information from the appraisal will be fed to a Responsible Officer who will make a recommendation to the GMC, normally every five years on whether to revalidate a doctor.
The purpose of revalidation is to assure patients, the public and other healthcare professionals that licensed doctors are up to date and are practising to the appropriate professional standards.
If doctors are holding registration with a licence to practise, then they will be required to participate in revalidation.
The RO will make a recommendation to the GMC about a doctor’s fitness to practise. This will be based on the doctor’s appraisals over the five year period, together with information derived from local clinical governance processes.
The GMC will require assurances that each doctor is meeting the required standards and that there are no known concerns about a doctor’s practice. The RO makes the recommendation, however it will be for the GMC to decide whether the doctor concerned should be revalidated.
To help doctors identify their Responsible Officer (RO), the Department of Health and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) have produced guidance outlining the ways in which doctors can link to a Responsible Officer.
General guidelines are:
- If you are employed permanently in an NHS organisation, then you will be linked to their RO.
- If you work through NHS Professionals, then you will be linked to their RO.
- If you are registered with a number of locum agencies then the designated agency RO for the agency you have worked for most in the previous calendar year will be your RO the next year.
If you organise most of the work yourself, then your RO will be the RO for the PCT where your address is, that is the address you are registered with the GMC.
The regulations also state that licensed doctors should relate to one and only one Responsible Officer.
A designated body as far as locum agencies are concerned are those which are participants in the GPS (previously Buying Solutions) national framework agreement for the supply of medical locums. Medacs Healthcare is a designated body.
The GMC will require assurances that each doctor is meeting the required standards and that there are no known concerns about a doctor’s practice. The RO makes the recommendation, however it will be for the GMC to decide whether the doctor concerned should be revalidated.
Once a GMC-registered doctor has been identified, we would initiate the following process:
- The doctor would be assigned to the Medacs Healthcare Middle East team,
- Medacs Healthcare would fast-track the majority of their registration and have the doctor 90% ready (from a compliance perspective) for carrying out locum work,
- At an agreed time, the doctor would arrive into the UK and complete a locum booking at one of the Medacs Healthcare clients,
- During this UK visit, the doctor would complete their appraisal with the Medacs Healthcare Revalidation Team, and submit all required documentation for the completion of the annual appraisal,
- The doctor would pay the standard required fee depending on which year in the process they are up to,
- The doctor would return to the Middle East and continue working on their normal duties, safe in the knowledge that another year of revalidation has been completed.
General guidelines are:
- If you are employed permanently in an NHS organisation, then you will be linked to their RO.
- If you work through NHS Professionals, then you will be linked to their RO.
- If you are registered with a number of locum agencies then the designated agency RO for the agency you have worked for most in the previous calendar year will be your RO the next year.
If you organise most of the work yourself, then your RO will be the RO for the PCT where your address is, that is the address you are registered with the GMC.
The regulations also state that licensed doctors should relate to one and only one Responsible Officer.
A designated body as far as locum agencies are concerned are those which are participants in the GPS (previously Buying Solutions) national framework agreement for the supply of medical locums. Medacs Healthcare is a designated body.
The GMC will require assurances that each doctor is meeting the required standards and that there are no known concerns about a doctor’s practice. The RO makes the recommendation, however it will be for the GMC to decide whether the doctor concerned should be revalidated.
