Revalidation support for Pulse psychiatrists and acute doctors
What is revalidation, and why’s it important?
Revalidation is the process by which the General Medical Council (GMC) confirms the continuation of a doctor’s license to practice in the UK. All doctors who wish to retain their license to practice must participate in revalidation.
Put simply; revalidation is an evaluation of your fitness to practice. It is there to support your development, drive improvements in clinical governance and give patients confidence that you’re practising to the appropriate professional standards.
How often do you need to revalidate?
You’re only required to revalidate once every five years, and your revalidation submission date will be recorded in your online GMC account and sent to you three months in advance.
Log into your GMC account
What does it involve?
The way you revalidate will depend on your revalidation connection type.
Most doctors have a connection to a responsible officer or suitable person who will assess the outputs of their yearly appraisals and clinical governance information to make a revalidation recommendation to the GMC. The GMC then decides if a doctor can retain their licence to practice.
Doctors without a connection to a responsible officer or suitable person revalidate through annual appraisals based on good medical practice, annual returns submitted to the GMC and a five-yearly assessment. The GMC will then make a revalidation decision based on the outcomes of these activities.
Find out your revalidation connection type
Responsible officers and designated bodies
A responsible officer is usually a senior doctor within a healthcare organisation who makes sure their doctors are regularly appraised and that there are processes to investigate and refer any fitness to practice concerns to the GMC. They make recommendations to the GMC about each doctor’s revalidation and typically sit on the organisation’s executive board.
For most doctors, the organisation where they undertake most, or all of their practice is their designated body. This can range from large NHS trusts, private hospitals, and membership organisations to independent healthcare providers and agencies like Pulse, who must appoint and resource a responsible officer.
How to identify your designated body
To identify your designated body, you can contact the organisations that you’re currently working with to discuss your working status to work out who you’ve been completing the majority of your practice through, or you can also use this GMC online revalidation connection tool to establish who should be your designated body. It’s also important to note that you should always keep your designated body up to date on your online account.
Is Pulse your designated body?
If you establish that Pulse is your designated body, please get in touch with our dedicated revalidation support team.
Once we have all the relevant information to move forward with the revalidation process, we will set you up with access to our market-leading online appraisal tool, Clarity, where you’ll be able to create your portfolio by uploading your supporting information and evidence, even while on the go. You’ll then be set up with an online appraisal with a trained appraiser where you’ll discuss the evidence you’ve produced and if any extra information or reflections will help you strengthen your revalidation portfolio as well as help you set up a personal development plan.
Requirements for appraisals
You need to collect five types of supporting information for your portfolio to show you meet the standards set by the GMC, and you’ll discuss these during your appraisal. They are:
- Continuing professional development (50 CPD a year/250 CPD over 5 years)
- Quality improvement activity (2 case-based discussions a year/10 over five years, 1-2 audits over 5 years or alternative QIA)
- Colleague and patient 360 feedback (both with analysed reports completed within the 5 years)
- Compliments, complaints, and serious events (to be logged at every appraisal)
- Reflections for each of the above
Ongoing support and CPD opportunities
We’re passionate about helping you succeed in your career, and our revalidation team will be on hand to help and guide you every step of the way through the revalidation process to ensure that your revalidation is successful and smooth sailing. You can also find lots more information about revalidation on the GMC website.
As part of our commitment to supporting your career, we also regularly give you access to a variety of exclusive CPD workshops. Register your interest below if you’d like to be the first to hear about any of our upcoming CPD events.
