Royal College of General Practitioners: RCGP Guide to supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (updated 2018)

Dr Susi Caesar, Medical Director for Revalidation, Royal College of General Practitioners, April 2018

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. 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. Such inconsistencies must be removed so that the administrative burden is decreased. Unfortunately, the 2017 RCGP revalidation survey shows that despite the RCGP Mythbusters and robust attempts to promote our message about reducing the burden and increasing the value of appraisal for GPs, there are still significant variations in practice. Please contact the RCGP if you have any concerns.

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

The GMC has updated its Guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (April 2018). This new document provides specific detail on updated RCGP recommendations to enable you to fulfil the GMC requirements for supporting information while protecting your time for patient care.