Royal College of General Practitioners: RCGP Guide to supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (2016)

Dr Susi Caesar, Medical Director for Revalidation, Royal College of General Practitioners, March 2016

With many thanks for the input and valuable contributions from patient and lay representatives and a wide range of internal and external stakeholders

Introduction

Successful revalidation is based on the demonstration that your normal way of working is safe and up-to-date. This is achieved by sharing, and discussing during the appraisal process, a relatively small number of examples of reflective practice that meet the General Medical Council (GMC) requirements across six types of supporting information. In addition, the responsible officer (RO) must be satisfied that there are no outstanding concerns about your practice arising from clinical governance information, or any other source.

Since the introduction of revalidation, there has been recognition that the effort involved should be reasonable and proportionate. Feedback from the 2015 RCGP revalidation survey, and other sources, suggests that inconsistencies in interpretation have led, in some cases, to the GMC requirements and RCGP guidance being applied in ways that are more onerous than intended. The inconsistencies must be removed so that the administrative burden is decreased.

All doctors should have to meet the same standards to revalidate, no matter what their scope of work, and revalidation should not detract from patient care. You must not allow the effort involved in producing your documentation to become disproportionate by attempting to document every example of your reflective practice. Appraisal is a valuable opportunity for facilitated reflection and learning, sharing and celebrating successes and examples of good practice, and planning for the future. It is important that you and your appraiser keep a supportive and developmental focus on quality maintenance and improvement through your personal and professional development without a major increase in workload.

Almost all GPs will have completed their first cycle of revalidation by the end of March 2016. From 1 April 2016 onwards, the RCGP guidance needs to be clearer and simpler to avoid inconsistencies in interpretation and an unnecessary burden on GPs.  This new document provides specialty specific detail on revised RCGP recommendations to enable you to fulfil the GMC requirements for supporting information while protecting your time for patient care.